Hooray!!  It’s my turn to share what I have made for the Calling All Kids series that Alida Makes is hosting.  This is such a fun series and I am so excited to be able to participate this year.

Calling All Kids is a series that explores children’s clothing as it relates to gender.  We were challenged to create a piece of clothing that is either unisex or that does not go along with traditional gendered clothing.  It’s basically a series all about creating clothing that suits your child’s personality without any stereotypes getting in the way.  At first, I wasn’t sure what I would make because my girls are pretty girly.  I have always said though that they are the daintiest and girliest little tomboys I know.  They love to take care of their baby dolls and play dress up and they love pink and sparkly things yet they love to be outside playing in the dirt and are constantly begging to play with their big brother and his friends.  So for this series, I decided I wanted to make my version of a tuxedo dress.  I feel like it describes my girly tomboys pretty well.

For the first dress, I made I started off with the Ruffle Top pattern by Elegance and Elephants.  I changed things up a bit by adding the white panel in the front to represent a tuxedo shirt.  I added pintucks and buttons and a “bow tie” to complete the look.  I decided to make it in a floral print because not too long ago my little Kira asked me to make her a new dress with flowers on it.  I love that this dress is super girly with the floral print and cute subtle ruffles at the sleeves yet have the tuxedo-inspired look to it to balance it out.  I think it definitely suits Kira’s personality.

For my next dress, I decided to remix my own design I collaborated on with Figgy’s patterns.  This is the Eos dress with an added white panel above the low back neckline.  I thought it was a perfect pattern to remix to make a tuxedo-inspired look.  I also love that the tuxedo look is in the back instead of the front as some might expect.  It also makes the dress a little different from her sisters and still coordinate at the same time.  I like having my girls coordinate without being too matchy-matchy.   I also took out the pin tucks in the front and added one little pleat instead since I already had pin tucks in the back for the tuxedo shirt.  You can see I also made it sleeveless.  I’m really happy with this dress and I think the color looks great on my little Layla.

I kind of love the way these dresses turned out and I love that my daughters are super girly yet super active and messy.  They always keep me on my toes and I just love watching their little personalities blossom.  It’s definitely my favorite part of being a parent!

Here are some more photos of my girls rocking their new tuxedo inspired dresses:

Make sure you stop by all the other bloggers participating in this series to find some inspiration for your own Calling All Kids outfits.  There have been some pretty awesome creations already!  There is also an amazing giveaway that you MUST enter!  You can find all the details and enter to win HERE.

Floral tuxedo dress – modified Ruffle Top by Elegance and Elephants, fabric from LA fabric district

Teal booties – Joyfolie

Blue tuxedo dress – modified Eos dress by Figgy’s, fabric from Joann

Gold sparkle shoes – Old Navy