February Dress

So Miss C has been nagging asked me to make her a dress for ages, the clients requirements were :- twirly dress and had a bow.  Off we went to the fabric shop and she chose this……

Wow what bright colours and the combination!  You can’t tell so much on the picture but the spots kinda dance before your eyes!  Anyhoo twirly skirt sounded like a circle skirt to me so using Pattys worksheet and my husbands brain I tried working out the size skirt I could make.  We quickly realised that it was limited by the width of the fabric (as long as you didn’t want to piece the skirt) so that sorted that out but as I wanted to make a dress I would need to make a bodice first, measure that and use those measurements rather than her waist measurements.  Miss C now has a hand-made-hand-me-down from Miss M so I decided to use that pattern as the bodice shape.  As its more of an empire line I extended the bodice by 1” and made it up, it was lined inside with white cotton, I topstitched all the edges to stop the lining rolling (anyone have any idea how you can understitch such as small bodice?  I couldn’t even think about getting it under the machine) what I should have done as well was to trim the lining so that it can’t roll forward, next time….
Once the bodice was completed I needed to work out the waist measurement, taking into account the seam allowance for the zip.  I had decided it do a hand-picked zip mainly because I would have a waist seam, neckline and ribbon to match up and I didn’t feel machine stitching it would make that easy.  I also wanted to try it out, why not use more couture style techniques on kids clothes!  So I measured the waist and this time hubby wasn’t around (some one has to earn the money to buy fabric round here!) so I worked it out myself!  Well you can guess what's coming next can’t you……  I cut out the donut shape, cut the back seam to put the zip in, and pinned the bodice to the skirt, by the time I got the end of the bodice I had about 3” of extra fabric!!!  I have no idea how that happened but I just hacked it off and pretended it never happened!  I guessed in a full circle skirt it was wasn’t going to show……..

and it didn’t!

How cute it that?  Its a perfect twirly dress for a little girl.  I haven’t hemmed it yet as I’m waiting for it to drop (although tbh on such a small skirt I don’t think it will be a problem but better to be same than sorry).  Miss C tried it on and she loved it, a full circle is certainly very twirly.  I’ll get an action shot of her soon.

The back matches perfectly and I even matched the thread for the ribbon! 

Inside is neat, all edges are either contained in the bodice or overlocked.  I’ve added my label as this is something I’m proud of!  My only concern is the ribbon as its satin rather than grosgrain, (they didn’t have the right colour) I just hope it holds up to washing and wearing….
Now I know that you are thinking, “Hang on Louise, aren’t you supposed to be making a dress for yourself?”  Well you’re right and I did try…. I started making

but all I seem to have made was a big pink sack!  I added some width to the hip and now its very deformed, that same problem I had on Januarys Dress so I think I need to look a bit more carefully at what I’m doing.  So I’m going to count this as February Dress as maybe I’ll revisit  2406 later in the year. 
I’ve signed up for Susan Khalje Couture Dress Course on Craftsy so maybe that will next months dress although now I’ve made a circle dress I think I want one for myself and add it to Burda 101 bodice.

Halterneck Dress

So I made another dress for Miss M from pattern New Look 6821.  This time I made a halterneck dress using the same size as the previous dress unfortunately this produced a bodice that was way too big at the back. 

(btw - Doesn't the watermark look like a tattoo - I hope that's the closest Miss M gets to having a tattoo!)

The front looked ok but the back was ridiculous as you can see here.  The problem was that I had constructed the whole thing (zip and all) before I was able to try it on her to see.  This meant I had to deconstruct the whole bodice section to bring the side seams in 1/2 " on each side and then to do the same to the skirt.  I had done my usual french seams on the skirt but by reducing the skirt I had to forgo the french seams, now there are 2 lines of stitching and then a raw edge.  No where near as neat as I would like but in the circumstance not to bad, as least any fraying won't go too far!  I also ended up with the bodice seams and the skirt seam mis-matched.  This was the case when I originally put the dress together but once the seams were re-done it was more pronounced, as they are under the arm and not so noticeable I thinking, tough! 

(Not too bad now!)

I also realised that when I made the first dress I sewed the tucks on the bodice on the inside whereas the instructions state to sew them on the outside.  I'm not sure it looks better, which do you think?

Overall I think it looks pretty good but I don't think a halterneck dress is the best for a 7 year old but at least I've tried it and it is wearable and she likes it.

I also put one of my new labels in sewn nicely by machine so I can show you.  What do you think, pretentious or cute?

I keep looking at other patterns to see what else I can make her, although I'm going to make a top from this pattern before I get anything else.  I'm also tempted to make something for myself, I have a family party coming up and it would be nice to have a lovely day dress, maybe a wrap dress or a neat tea dress to wear to that but I haven't found anything I like yet.  What's your favourite pattern?

  

A summer dress from a pattern

I sorted out a load of clothes from Miss M wardrobe recently, moving loads into Miss C wardrobe (benefits of having 2 girls!) which left great gaping holes in her wardrobe. I bought some t-shirts as she was seriously lacking in that department and looked around the blogosphere looking for some patterns and tutorials for dresses and tops. Unfortunately there don't seem to be many tutorials for Miss M age range (age 7-8), there are loads for toddler girls and pre-schoolers but get to school age and there are thin pickings! I've always been a bit reluctant to buy patterns for the girls as they grow so quickly and they aren't very cheap at least in the UK. I've been working through my Design It Yourself book so I don't buy patterns for myself either but I'm nowhere near confident to start drafting for children!

Anyway I decided I would have to bite the bullet and off we popped to the fabric shop and I found this New Look pattern which had a number of basic shapes that you could mix and match. This is what appealed to me the most as I thought it would be very versatile and it cost £5.25 (I think) so it wasn't too expensive. Miss M measured as size 7 on the chart which meant there was one extra size to go and Miss C would fit into the range quite happily but as I mentioned she has so many clothes it’s ridiculous. I traced off size 7 rather than cut it, something I've never done before but I wanted to preserve the pattern for other sizes. It all worked very well, I decided to use bodice B with Skirt F adding on bows to the shoulder straps which is an option on bodice B. I'm really pleased with the way it came out, the size is great, generous in fact as you are never quite sure if it’s gonna be ok until it’s made! Miss M thinks it’s great and wanted to wear it straight away!

I did a blind hem and also used a french seam on the side seams to make it neater, I love french seams! 

Look how well the bodice front, back and skirt front and back matched up!  Really chuffed with my sewing skills on this one!

Love the bows for extra detail

The front and back have 6 1/4" tucks to take in the fullness, worked well at skimming over Miss Ms pot belly!

I put in an invisible zip as I feel they are a lot neater and not as difficult as you might think!

I also made some labels!  Using this tutorial involving iron-on transfer paper I made twill labels.  They are 1/2" wide and look pretty cool.  Unfortunately I made them after the dress so I had to sew them in by hand which I won't show you as my hand stitching is dreadful!  I'll show you the next one that gets machined stitched in! 

So what do you think?  Pretty good I think.  I've already decided on a halterneck dress and a frilled sleeve tunic as next on the list.  I've been really impressed with this pattern so I might try some more especially if I get more mix and match patterns so I can make different clothes rather than churning out the same dress in different fabrics!