Handmade Bunny Dress with Simplicity Pattern 1208

Handmade bunny dress made using the Simplicity Pattern 1208! A cute girl’s dress for Easter and spring.

With Easter coming up this weekend, I thought it would be fun to make this sweet Easter bunny dress for my daughter. I have had this pattern, Simplicity 1208, for a couple years now. I picked it up during one of JoAnn Fabrics’ pattern sales – my favorite time to buy patterns! This pattern was only available in sizes 3-8, larger than my daughter at the time, but the kitty and bunny dresses looked so cute I knew I’d use it someday!

For the skirt, I used a beautiful stripe fabric from Contempo’s “BoBo Baby” collection by Maggie and Flo. Making the bunny applique on the front of the dress was my favorite. It is so sweet especially with the cute ears tied in a knot! You can see a few in-process pictures below.

The dress closed in the back with buttons. I used white flower buttons I found in a shoebox of buttons my grandmother gave me. It was fun searching through the buttons trying to find three that matched. These were perfect!

The only problem I ran into with the dress was the button loops. The pattern had me create three loops for the buttons made from the same fabric as the bodice. I didn’t get a picture of them, but they looked so sweet. It wasn’t until after I stitched on my three white vintage buttons that I found I couldn’t get the fabric loops to work with the buttons. The loops were two thick and two stiff. I ended up taking them out and replacing them with small ribbon loops using 1/4″ ribbon. This worked perfectly and I was able to keep my vintage buttons.

This dress turned out so cute and is perfect for Easter and the entire spring season. The pattern came with another dress featuring a little kitty so I’m hoping to make that one too! :) Here are a few more dresses I’ve made using commercial patterns from Simplicity or McCalls!

Choo Choo Train Dress – with Free Train Applique Pattern – Simplicity 1205