DIY: An African print playdate dress for JOE

I FINALLY finished this dress after spending 3-weeks. Granted, it was more like 30-minutes once a week but still! I wasn't working from any real pattern but rather from my head which made things a little more challenging.

I had some ankara fabric from my wedding 3-years ago so I decided to put it to good use and make a dress for JOE.

I eye balled a dress from her closet and used it for creating my pattern.

Here is everything all cut up.

My first time doing gathers.

The zipper was pinned in to give me an idea of where I want it to be.

Front of dress with pinned in zipper.

All done!

And here are pictures of my little model in her new dress. She didn't want to take off her tights so I had to take the pictures with her wearing it :-).

Expertise needed: Intermediate. Only because you have to be comfortable sewing in a lining as well as a zipper. It took me a couple of tries. Also, you need you need to know how to sew gathers.
Total approximate time: This took a little over 90-minutes total time BUT I did it over a 3-week period!
Total spent on sewing materials: $0. I already had everything at home from previous projects. The ankara was a wedding gift.
Feedback: I liked this dress and will make other variations of it. The good thing is that I know what I did wrong and can make adjustments/modifications next time.