Hi Everyone. This week I decided to make my 3 year old a peasant dress for a birthday party. I wanted to glam up this easy pattern by adding some shiny gold rick rack to make the standard pattern a bit more elegant. I also decided to draft my own peasant dress pattern to ensure the dress fits to size. My 3 year old is in between sizes at the moment so she doesn’t quite fit in 3T but still a bit too small for 4T patterns. This pattern as is the perfect 3T/4T pattern. If you scale it up about 10%, it will work for a normal 4T pattern. In drafting my own pattern, I followed this super awesome tutorial from Simple Simon and Company. However, if you want to use the one I have, you can download it below. This dress is similar to other popular peasant dresses online. I did a nightgown for a while back in 4T and a baby dress in 9 months about a year ago. The main fabric used for this dress is Jay-Cyn designs Eiko Bird Blossom is Shroom from Fabricworm.
I love puff sleeves on little girls. They just look so much “girlier” and elegant than putting an elastic or just hemming. Accented with some shiny rick rack, the sleeves really stand out on this dress.
For the bottom, I did a contrasting band with some matching buttons on the side. Again, the rick rack on the bottom really brings out the fabric and adds an elegant touch to the pattern. I have honestly never worked with gold rick rack before so this was fun!
I like the simplicity of the pattern and the fabric. Not everything has to be pink and filled with tulle for little girls in my opinion.
Your Supplies
3/4 yard main fabric
1/2 yard contrasting fabric
You can download the 3T/4T pattern HERE. This will open in Google Docs and prompt you to download the pattern in PDF using Adobe. If you are having a hard time downloading the pattern, email me and I will send you a PDF copy of it. If you want to draft your own pattern, please follow Simple Simon and Company tutorial.
Since this is the same dress as others I have done, I will refer to pictures from another post; the toddler nightgown.
Let’s start
The pattern for the front and back are for the top pieces only. You will have to measure how long you want the dress to be to get the desired length.
Once you have all your pieces. It’s time to put the sleeves on the front and back pieces. With right sides together, sew the sleeves on the front bodice.
Next, sew the sleeves to the back bodice.
Next, let’s add the band to the bottom. Cut about 30″ of 4″ wide flannel. Fold under 1/4″ and then another 1/4″ for the hem. Iron down. Sew right sides together. Repeat for the back bodice. ** THE PICTURES SHOW FOR A RUFFLE. DO THE SAME PROCESS BUT WITHOUT GATHERING THE STRIP FOR THE BAND.
Your finished band attached to the bodice will look like this:
Add the rick rack to the bottom band.
Let’s move onto the sleeves. Fold down 1/4″ and then about 2″. Iron and hem. Take about 6″ of 1/4″ elastic and stitch it on the top of your hem while pulling the elastic. The elastic should be pulled as you are sewing until you reach the end. Repeat for other side.
Add rick rack to the sleeve just like you did for the bottom band.
Next, sew from the end of the sleeves all the way down the side of the dress. Repeat for the other side.
Create a casing on the neck line by folding in 1/4″ and then again about 3/4″. Sew all the way around leaving about 2″ to thread your elastic. Thread elastic and sew the opening close.
That’s it. Hope you guys enjoy the pattern.
Thanks for visiting and Happy Sewing
