Ruffle Fabric Peasant Dress

When I started thinking about a blessing dress for our little girl, it didn’t take long to decide just what I wanted. I knew I wanted something simple, but not boring, and still femine and beautiful.
I had some white ruffle fabric from RuffleFabric.com, and knew it would be perfect in combination with a simple pattern. As I’ve mentioned before, if you’re looking for ruffle fabric, save yourself the time and buy it from Ruffle Fabric – they have the best selection and prices that you’ll find online. Their website also has a list of links to projects using ruffle fabric to give you lots of good project ideas!

You can find my tips for sewing with ruffle fabric here, where I shared a free pattern for a ruffle fabric newborn diaper cover. 
For this dress, I used my Infant Peasant Dress Free Pattern, with a few easy changes.
First, I didn’t curve the neckline and top of sleeve as the pattern is shaped. I cut those curves straight across, to allow a nice even and straight edge to make the elastic casing without getting in the way of the ruffles.
It allowed the top row of ruffles to hang nicely over the casing.

I also added about an inch and a half or so to the hem, since it’s more of a formal dress and won’t be worn with leggings like I suggest in the original pattern.
One great thing about ruffle fabric is that it doesn’t need to be hemmed. Just turn the last ruffle upwards before you cut, and trim the flat connecting fabric underneath. It doesn’t get much easier than that!

Because of the drape of the ruffle fabric, I thought it might be awkward to have the elastic casing on the hem of the sleeves, so I left that out (and happily – I’ll never complain about one less step), and the sleeves hang perfectly. Just FYI, I did trim some bulk from the seam where the sleeves, bodice, and sideseam all meet in the underarm area, and it helped with the bulk from all the ruffles.
I’ve been considering adding a white satin ribbon that could be tied in a small bow around the dress, but can’t decide. What do you think? Should I leave it as is? As simplistic as I normally am, I think I’m leaning towards adding the ribbon, but could be easily swayed :).
I’ll be sure to share pics of my baby actually wearing the dress! Four weeks till my due date – yikes!

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28 Comments

  1. love this fabric. thanks for the links! i think a small white satin bow at the center of the neckline would be sweet

  2. This is so pretty! I love it!
    Does she have hair? How about a pretty satin ribbon in her hair? And I wonder about on shoes? I rather love the dress plain, but that is just me!

  3. Oh this is beautiful. I could see my little girl in something like this, except not white! Fortunately I know that ruffled fabric comes in a range of dirt-hiding colors!

  4. Gorgeous! I love the idea of the ribbon. I would use a super pale pink :). Are you planning on making a matching hat out of the ruffle fabric? You know, because you have so much free time, lol!

  5. So, so pretty! I love the ruffle material and the simplicity of it all! She is going to look so pretty in it!

    –SaraLyn

  6. Lovely dress! I’m new to your blog and I’m loving it – so creative and sweet!
    Love, Amy :)

  7. I think a small ribbon with long tails at the center of the neckline would be a perfect finishing touch! I love the dress.

  8. Oh Wow! This is so sweet, yet simple. Absolutely love the ruffles, I wish my teenager was a little girl again so I could dress her up in dresses like this. I think she would have a fit now if I tried LOL!

  9. It’s beautiful! I am working on the diaper cover right now. I need to go back and read your post again :) All three of my girls wore the same blessing dress, need to get it framed or something :)

  10. This is BEAUTIFUL! I wish I would have seen this before I blessed my little girl…almost two years ago. :) Maybe the next one. Beautiful work, as always! Thanks for sharing!

  11. What an exciting time. I always loved getting clothes ready for baby and opening the dresser drawer now and then just to take inventory before baby was born. Distant memories. :-) What a beautiful dress! Lovely work!

  12. This dress is so adorable!
    We’d love if you linked this up to our Beautify It Monday link party going on now – bringingbeauty.blogspot.com/2012/04/beautify-it-monday-2.html

  13. That is beautiful. Just beautiful. I am sure she will be very beautiful wearing that dress. How special she will be.

  14. That dress is stunning. I love the simplicity of the white but the ruffles make it so much more. Great job!!

  15. This dress is adorable! I’ve been working on a similar project (in my head) and am wondering how exactly you did the neckline. It’s too cute.

  16. I am looking at making a baptism dress for my daughter and niece and love the looks of this. Obviously I will have to make it larger. I am wondering how you did the neckline so that the ruffle hangs over?

  17. LJLC – when I cut out the dress, I just made sure to position the pattern piece at the bottom of one ruffle, and when I sewed I made sure to keep the ruffle free from the stitches. Hope that helps!

  18. Not sure you still read the comments on older posts, but I had a question (possibly a stupid one). If I wanted to make this without the sleeves, could I just leave them off and finish the edge? I was thinking baby girl would stay a little cooler since it’s summer time now. Love your blog and so appreciate the free patterns!

  19. Hi Jenny! Yep, I still see comments on older posts :). Since it’s a peasant style dress, I’m not sure how great it would work to leave the sleeves off – you may need to make the armholes a bit smaller so they don’t gape, if that makes sense.

  20. Did you ever post pics of your sweet girl in this dress. I am doing portraits of my kids on Saturday and bought ruffle fabric with the plan to make a dress for my baby. I just can’t decide how I want the dress to look. The peasant style seems simple and cute for pictures, but I was trying to see it before I make it.

  21. Love this. I’m buying the fabric and my mother-in-law is going to sew this for our little girls blessing dress! Can you tell me if you used mini ruffle fabric? Rufflefabric.com currently only has a white 2in ruffle fabric available. Just want to be sure I order the right size. Thanks for the lovely pattern!

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