Yo Gabba Gabba Dresses

The Brobee fabric

My daughters *love* Yo Gabba Gabba.  And, as you probably know, Yo Gabba Gabba doesn't particularly bother me.

That said, I'm not the sort of person to go out and buy much in the way of licensed toys.  Yes, I got the girls Yo Gabba Gabba plush backpacks for Christmas, but that was very specifically special.  Licensed toys are not things I generally like to have around the house.

But that isn't to say the girls can't have *any* stuff that relates to their favorite cartoon characters.

While we were out shopping for the fabric for Baby X's room, we found this... material.  It's a poly terry- light, comfy, and striped green.  Pretty much exactly like Brobee.

DD went nuts.  So when I offered to make her a Brobee dress, you can imagine her excitement.  SI also got in on the action, she wanted a Muno dress.  Now this was going to be harder.  There was no comparable material for Muno.  So I grabbed half a yard of some plain red cotton, a yard and a half of that dangly ball trim that people like to put on lamps, and decided I'd just figure it out.

They asked about their dresses daily for a few weeks.  Then just once in a while.  What can I say?  I've been busy!  But for the baby shower (my friends threw me a shower last weekend) I managed to pull them together.

Voila!  Brobee and Muno dresses!

Freshly bathed and dressed to kill.

For DD, it was love at first sight.  She sang and danced and gave me all sorts of hugs.  "I LOVE my Brobee dress!"  It was great.

After a brief initial panic attack over the scarcity of bumps, SI also decided that her new Muno dress was the best thing ever.  She wanted to sleep in it.  She wants to wear it every day.  I call it a win.

As is my modus operandi, I didn't use a pattern.  I traced a bit of one of their dresses, and sort of winged it from there.

For DD's Brobee dress, I made it longer and with deeper arm holes than I knew it needed.  I figure this dress can last at least two years- and it is PERFECT beach wear!  The light terry cloth?  A breezy dress?  I see this being our go-to garment for trip to the beach (or backyard sprinkler) for as many as three summers. And that would be great.

I gave it a button closure on one shoulder, because I imagine DD's head is just going to keep growing.

Plus?  With those big arm holes, she can wear a warm shirt underneath it for the fall, if not the winter!

Passing out in her new Brobee dress (and with her new unicorn from Grandmommy)

"I LOVE my Brobee dress!"

It's certainly not the fanciest dress in the world.  It's a play dress- a beach dress.  It's not supposed to be for special occasions.  And that had been the plan.

Of course, the Muno dress was a whole different story.

First of all, the fabric is a weave, not a knit.  So no stretch.  That meant it would need a zipper (I freakin' hate button holes.)

Second of all, I needed to find a way to give it bumps without simply covering the thing in that trim.  The trim was more expensive than the fabric ($3.50/yard v. $2/yard), so there was no way I was going to do that.  Instead, I decided to hem the dress with the "bumps," trim the neckline and yoke, and then give it trimmed pockets.  I *barely* had enough trim.

All in all, this was much trickier.  The fabric was less forgiving, the invisible zipper much more difficult to install than a single gigantic button, and the trim of course threatened to unravel itself if I pinned it.  But the result?

New Muno dress and a new unicorn

"We both have bumps!"

The girls are happy.  And I'm happy.

I had a plan, when I was pregnant with DD and SI, that I would make them all sorts of pretty little play dresses.  Because little girl dresses are easy, and fun, and we would pick out fabric together and they would have a closet filled with dresses that I made for them for as long as they'd let me.

Of course, that fantasy didn't involve the rigors of University life, another pregnancy, or... well... much else in reality.  Aside from Halloween costumes, these are the first clothes I've made my kids.

I am so pleased with them!

"I am Brobee!"

"I am Muno and I have a unicorn!"

...I think the girls are, too.  :)