demin dress with bird shaped pocket

I've not posted anything on here for ages, I've not really made anything, but, I had a new baby girl in november and got my sewing machine up and running again. One of my friends gave me a beautiful dress for Baf (the new baby - its what her brother calls her - it has stuck for now - she may never forgive us) at christmas time - I love it, she is only 4 months now, her dresses look better in the hangers than on her right now. Too much pink or too many bows and she looks a bit like a tiny Grayson Perry so I wanted to make something that would suit her feisty charecter, A much loved blue cotton print shirt had recently worn out but I couldn't bear just to put it in the bin so I used scraps of material for the sleeves, collar and pocket. I traced roughly the shape of the dress back and front and cut it out in the demin and lining material from and old bed sheet, I sewed the shoulder seams together to attach front and back on both the outer and the lining, tacked in place the sleeves and collar. I then stitched the lining and outer right sides together around the neck. To stitch the arm holes I lay the dress out the right way around and rolled the fabric up so it was right sides together at the armholes whilst still being wrong sides together at the neck - difficult to explain - easier to work out with the dress in front of you, the last stage of this involves pulling everything through the loop formed between the neck and the armhole, with the denim being quite thick this burst some of the stitching and I had to fix with a needle and thread. I closed the bottom of the arm holes when i stitched the side seams on the dress and lining. The buttons on the back were added next - I find this stage the most frustrating - its a lot of faffing about but it is worth taking the time to do it right. The bird pocket was inspired by the shape of the collar - I am not very artistic so had to Google, print and trace the bird, despite this I still managed to get the wing upside down, it looks OK though. Believe it or not it won first prize in the dressmaking section at the local show - it didn't deserve to - there was not much competition - but what there was seemed much more accomplished