This pattern makes a beautiful dress to fit a baby of approximately 6 - 12 months of age. The dress is about 15 inches long, but the ribbon around the bottom of the bodice allows the dress to be gathered in for a younger child, possibly 3 months, and then, as the child grows, the bodice can be slackened and this should increase the length of time it can be worn, especially as the longer length on a baby that isn’t walking is not a problem.

You could make this dress any colour, or a combination of colours. Or you could have several different coloured ribbons to thread through a white dress. Worn with a little vest, t-shirt or jumper and tights to match the ribbon, it looks adorable and can be used at any time of the year.

If you want to increase the length to make this a christening gown, then you can repeat the main pattern of four rows as many times as you wish. Obviously you would need more yarn.

If you want to make this dress for an older child, it could be made using a larger size of hook. You could use the same weight of cotton and a 3.0 mm hook or you could use a thicker yarn, such as 4 ply and a 3.5 mm hook. Even a double knit yarn could be used with a 4.00 mm hook. Each increase in hook size would, of course, mean a larger dress and so you would need more yarn, wider ribbon and larger buttons. A dress made with a 3.5 mm hook and 4 ply cotton is 5 inches longer. A 3.00 mm hook would give a dress between these two sizes.

There are detailed instructions of how to make the dress, with some photographs.

The pattern includes both UK and US terms. The UK terms come first and then the whole pattern is repeated with US terms, so please be aware if you print off the pattern that you should only print the pages you want so as not to waste your paper and ink.

Please feel free to take the items you’ve created from my pattern and use them at your leisure, but please do not sell, edit, or redistribute this pattern in any way, or claim this original work as your own. April Lesley retains all rights to the content here within.

Thank you for your understanding.