My daughter has spent the last several months begging me to make Lily (our Maltese puppy) a princess dress. We’ve perused countless Etsy websites, sewing blogs, and pattern sites together, looking for just the right outfit.   When we stumbled across Julie Ahn’s Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/julie.ahn.129  we were both captivated by her designs.  Julie is an incredibly talented Korean artisan who designs the loveliest dresses for small show dogs.  My daughter was delighted and immediately suggested that I make Lily an outfit just like hers.  The task was daunting but intriguing and I readily agreed.

Sweetheart by Janna © 2011

  Thus began my research phase.  I spent countless hours searching the internet for a sewing pattern that looked something similar to Julie’s outfits only to discover that very few existed.  Somewhat by accident, I stumbled across this pattern book on Etsy from Pink Nelie.  http://www.etsy.com/shop/PinkNelie.  The book, written in Korean, contained thirty dog-related sewing patterns.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/PinkNelie

Studying the patterns, I learned how to sew a dog dress.  Then I spent a week designing my own pattern pieces to create both a fitted blouse and jumper.

Sweetheart by Janna © 2011

Not wanting to spend a fortune on new fabric for a first-time (somewhat iffy) project, I scrounged through my stash and found some beautiful teal stretch cotton for a blouse and matching black and teal plaid for the jumper.

Sweetheart by Janna © 2011

And it worked!  YAY!  Snap closures in the front of both the blouse and jumper make for easy dress-up.  Beautiful black buttons adorn the back of the jumper giving the outfit some extra pizzazz.

Sweetheart by Janna © 2011

Lace embroiders both the collar and puffy sleeves for an added touch.

A few adjustments need to be made to both my blouse and jumper patterns, however, I’ve already redesigned the pattern pieces.  I will make another version before I attempt the grand finale, which will  include both a pink tutu under-skirt and top bustle.  (Super-princess outfit!)

And of course, I do have to give credit to my poor Lily who has endured much dressing, redressing, and endured several photo shoots.  But, I think she enjoyed the extra attention and the antics of all my kids jumping up and down behind me as I snapped the shots.  🙂

So did my kids.  Their smiles and giggles made the moment special and all the work worth it.