My first matching outfit order!!

My friend asked me to make her son and daughter matching outfits for the upcoming holiday season (bring on the fall and winter!). She gave me a lot of freedom in the planning and only asked that the fabric be red corduroy that was soft. Well, let's just say that I was so excited to make these outfits and I really hope she likes them.

Her son's outfit was pretty straight forward. I chose a simple romper outfit that I have made before. The pattern is easy and I was sad to learn that the fabric stores don't sell it anymore. Do they bring patterns back every now and then like they do Disney movies??? If you want it, you can probably order it online. This romper pattern is a little different from my favorite romper pattern because it only has a little lining in the trunk as opposed to the full lining in my favorite romper. Because corduroy is warm, I did not think my friend's son needed 2 layers of it. Only having a partial lining reduces the overall fabric cost, too.
Want to see how I have made this same romper in a shortie version? Here you go!!

The daughter's dress was a little trickier because there are so many options for little girls' dresses!! I finally chose the dress that is in the same pattern as the romper for the son. I picked that same pattern because:

• I have made it before
  
• trunk of the dress is fully lined (better for cold months)
• the hem of the dress has a tuck or fold which means my friend can use this for at least a couple of years as long as she just undoes the tuck. I am always an advocate of stretching clothes out as long as possible.
  

The only down side to this dress is that it does require a bit of fabric due to the 2nd and 3rd reasons I just listed for choosing the pattern. I needed 2.75 yards for a 4T dress. Good thing corduroy was on sale at JoAnn's when I bought it!!
I added the ribbon as a trim to the dress because the dress looked too plain with just the corduroy and this dress is going to be used during the holidays. I wanted to add a little pizazz but my friend definitely did not want anything fru-fru so I kept it to a minimum.
***This dress pattern is a little difficult to make and I would not recommend it for a beginner sewing project. The continuous lap placket (aka. "pleat in the back" that makes it easier to put on and off) is hard to understand and the pictures on the pattern are terrible. Also, the trunk lining needs to be hand sewn to the skirt portion and figuring out how to keep the lining separate from the main trunk fabric while sewing is tricky.