Handmade Wedding Clothes for Kids

inside: tons of pattern ideas for handmade wedding clothes for kids. Inspiration for sewing formal wear. 

When my brother was planning his wedding and asked me to make handmade wedding clothes for the kids I decided to put this list together of great formal wear patterns for kids. This post is full of photos of the formal clothes I made for the kids PLUS tons of patterns for you to choose from if you are planning to make handmade wedding or formal wear for kids this summer. 

Handmade Wedding Clothes for Kids

My baby brother {who isn’t a baby anymore!} got married the end of June. At Christmas they had asked me to make clothes for all the nieces and nephews as they were all going to be part of the ceremony.

I was excited for the challenge and a little nervous! Today’s post will show off the handmade wedding clothes for kids I made, plus a bunch of other pattern ideas, and tips that others have used for making kids wedding clothes. {these photos are all mine from the wedding, looking forward to seeing what the wedding photographer got too!}

I had nine kids to sew for, ages 9 months – 8 years.  Three boys and 6 girls. I knew I wanted to be able to use the same pattern for all the girls, but make each dress a bit different. I couldn’t start sewing too early, because these little ones grow so fast! In Feb. I headed down to the fabric markets to find fabric.

The wedding colors were navy, gray, champagne, and peach. I found a satin in the champagne and peachy tool and chiffon. Even though I didn’t have a pattern picked out at this point, but the fabric was cheap so I bought 10 yards of the tulle and chiffon, 5 yards of the satin and enough white shirting and blue bottom weight for the boys. What I did know was that I would using the Peek A Boo Classic Chinos and Classic Oxford patterns for the boys.

I’ll show off the boys first since their outfits were pretty straight forward. You can find the Classic Chino Pattern and the Classic Oxford Pattern on the Peek a Boo Site. She also has vest and jacket patterns that are adorable and come in a great size range! I adore the final outcome.. they looked SO great. {Shoes are from Old Navy}

We bought the suspenders online..

The bow ties were NOT a hit with the boys, but were requested by the bride, so we only had the boys wear them for a few photos and the ceremony.. they looked perfect! I used the free bow tie pattern and tutorial from Delia Creates.

And here are my two boys! I also made my dress.. It’s the Caroline by Mouse House Creations. I loved the fabric, but wished I had made it a size smaller..

I had a bit of trouble with the collars on the white shirts. I’m not sure why, I’ve made the pattern before and it was fine. With the neck open they looked great. When we did up the top button for the tie, there was some bunching… They worked though and the whole effect was great.

During the ceremony the kids walked with balloons down the isle.

The plan was that they would meet my brother {their uncle} at the front, then release the balloons… With the heat and the heavy twine strings on the balloons, they wouldn’t go up. It was a funny moment, but the kids just carried them off to the side and then sat down… so cute!

Ok.. now onto the girls outfits. All the dresses are the Hummingbird Dress by Rabbit Rabbit Creation. I love simplicity of the dress and how many different ways you can change it up.  Each dress is slightly different. I used fabric in different places, changed up the layers of the skirt and added decoration on some of the tops. The largest size also has flutter sleeves.

Several of the dresses had tulle. This one had it as the top layer, my daughter had a three layer skirt with tulle in the middle and another dress had it under to add some poof. The rest of the skirts were very gathered with at least two layers of satin and chiffon. I think one of them was just three chiffon layers, and it was so fluttery! I also played with hem length and different lengths of different layers. 

The biggest change was probably that I used ribbon for the straps and left each side long. I then made a loop on the back of the dress and the straps came from the front, over the shoulders, through the loop and tied in a bow.  We left long tails down the back and each dress could easily be adjusted with the straps like this. I was 8000 miles away from these girls when I was making the dresses so I was able to sew with just a chest measurement.

Here’s my gorgeous baby in her Hummingbird.

And the whole crew! {with my parents}

If you have any questions about the dresses {or boys clothes} please let me know. Once I got going the dresses were a really fast sew, which was good for me. I sewed all these outfits in March and April and were finished by the time we were planning our adoption trip to China.

My three cuties!

The wedding was in a gorgeous location.

Here are other gorgeous options for kids wedding wear and formal wear sewing patterns.

I’ve asked around a bit with some of my fellow sewists and here are several other pattern recommendations that have worked well for Flower Girls dresses.  If you have photos for the patterns I don’t have a photo for, I’d love to see! You can e-mail me: nap-timecreations@hotmail.com

Peek A Boo – Savanah

Foo Foo Threads – Roxanne dresses

 Create Kids Couture – Loretta

Free Party Dress from Cottage Mama

Patterns for Pirates – Sweet Bow Dress

Made for Mermaids – Lily

Snazzydrawers top and my own bottom – Wicked Cute Wardrobe

Haven by Violet Field Threads

Almost Famous Tulle Dress

Hand Maidens Cottage on ETSY – Tea Party Dress

The Simple Life Company Bundle 2T-12

Crickets Dress and Tunic by Brown Goose

Blog Posts like this one with details: {have one to add?}

Crafty Hour – Yellow Blue Wedding