Designing childrens clothes

After you have made a few children's dresses you may want to try to design or style your own. As you can see there are basic styles all which can be changed to make a design of your own. The best way to show the styles is from this picture:

The basque or basic bodice, is the foundation of many dresses, jumpers and blouses.   The empire line is actually a shortened version of the basic bodice. Then you have a princess style which is fitted with a gored skirt. A-line has been used for years and has never gone 'out of style' also the bases for many different designs. The dropped waist style, can be made using any of the other styles.   When you look over children's dresses, you can see how how many of them are based on these few body lines.  Add a blouse, pants and jacket pattern and you will have no limit to what you can make.

Add to your collection different collars and sleeves and you can style several garments.  This really helps with the budget as the price of patterns can be a big investment.  Don't stop there, add trims, smocking, ribbon and braid.  You can see the sky it the limit.

Collect pictures, of different styles that appeal to you. With camera phones, you can even snap a few at your favorite boutique. 

This jumper was made using the BB Holly/Hunter pattern.  It was a sample so I didn't use the best fabric, but just to give you an idea.  The overlays could be scalloped.  Ruffles could be added to the bottom, there is no limit to what you could do with this basic pattern.