Simple Summer Dress

My cousin and I were shopping this summer when she spotted this cute little girls dress in an upscale boutique.  She really liked the color and it was really cute, but it was also a really basic shape.  While I understand and support the need to charge a fair wage for handmade items, I personally have a hard time paying high prices for something that I can easily make myself.  I decided to look for some similar fabric an see what I could do.

I found two fabrics so the dress could be reversible and selected one of Lydia's dresses with a similar shape to use as a pattern.  The only part that I cut differently was the top where I wanted it to tie like the example. 

I made two identical pieces out of one fabric and then cut two identical pieces out of the coordinating fabric.  I sewed the two yellow pieces together at the side seams and then sewed the two flowered pieces together at the side seams.  Next I put the right sides of the yellow dress to the right sides of the flowered dress and sewed the armhole and neck seam.  I turned it right side out, pressed the seams, and sewed a hem in the bottom.  Sorry, but I apparently didn't take any pictures of that part.  It's pretty easy if you sew at all, and if you don't you might want a pattern anyway.

Here is the finished dress.  Considering what I paid for fabric and the time that it took, the price they were asking for it at the boutique was probably fair.  I saved some money by doing it myself and had fun trying it out.  Now I just hope that it stayed warm in Iowa long enough for my cousin to put it on her daughter once or twice.