Spring dresses

This past week it's been -28 oC in the morning and snow flurries in the forecast.  It's been a long, long winter with record low temps and snow amounts. However there are spring shadows shaping up when the sun does make an appearance and that's been putting me in the mood to make some spring dresses.

A dress pattern that appeared in Sew Beautiful magazine issue #80 way back in 2002 has been on my bucket list for, well, I guess the past 12 years. I like the bateau style neck, the non-puffy sleeves and the raised waistline. The dress is called Pascale and was designed by Laura Jenkins Thompson.

Since there's no time like the present, I found some mauve micro-check cotton in my stash and finally, at long last, made a Pascale dress.

The dress came together beautifully and easily.
Instead of white piping, I went with a greeny-yellow colour and made self covered buttons too.
There wasn't enough fabric to make a wide sash so the thin one will just have to do.

I made a decorative hairband too to go with the dress; grosgrain ribbon with a purple pansy.

I am more than pleased with the outcome of the dress as it fits well and it was so easy to make.

For the next two dresses, I used the "Tinny" pattern from Straightgrain.http://www.straight-grain.com

I have to say that whenever I hear or see the word 'Tinny' I think of our aluminum fishing boat we fondly call The Tinny.

For the first Tinny, I used Aneela Hoey fabric called Walk in the Woods and used the pleated skirt style from the pattern.
I made two belt loops to hold the red leather belt I bought her from Nordstrom.

When I initially made the dress, I felt the hem wasn't long enough and overall it might be a tight fit.
Before I put in the sleeves, we had a 'fitting'.

Good news .. it fit!

So I put in the sleeves that I made a little longer than indicated on the pattern but simply created a thin rolled hem.

For a hairband decoration, I made a little fox face in felt and stitched it onto some grosgrain ribbon.

For the second Tinny dress, I used the circle skirt that's included in the pattern.

The collar was inspiration from the dress Rachel made made from the Belgian book Stof-voor-durf-het-zelvers.

In discussion with Rachel, she suggested using Oliver + S pattern Playdate dress, and using the bib section, play with it by folding into pleats.  So in other words, the collar flap piece was a deep U-shape and folded into pleats.
I cut mine out smaller than hers with fewer pleats and tried it on before adding the sleeves.

It fit and looked okay!!

I put in the sleeves but was annoyed at myself for not adding some length to the hem.  Using a 3mm rolled hem foot on my machine, I made the hem.

I didn't make matching decorative hairband much to Miss C's chagrin.

Duly noted and I'll get on that right away!

Twirl-ability

Lately, the measure of my sewing ability is if the dress twirls. Well, here's the test.

First the wind-up........

 ....then let 'er twirl!

She really liked this dress as well but getting a photo proved difficult.
Here's the back as per the tutorial I previously posted.

And here's the front.

But she didn't want to play tea party ......

...she wanted to twirl!

This photo is out of focus, I know, and who wouldn't be after all that twirling?

Notes to self:
Vintage Natalie dress fits just a little on the roomier side in size 3. Perfect for long time use w/blouse underneath for cooler weather. Make more; maybe in pinwale corduroy or viyella. Mom didn't like patterned piping. Gah!
Basic Bodice dress fit exact in size 3. Back treatment worked perfectly. Mom wants more of same with big sash.

Vintage Natalie

When I saw this pattern I knew I had to make it. As good luck would have it I was inspired from versions here and here made by my internet sewing friend Jenny Jo, as well as here made as an entry for PR&P.

The fabric for my version is by Robert Kauffman called Betty Dear. The dress is size 3.

The pattern was designed by Janet Gilbert for Sew Beautiful and you can read all about how she got her inspiration for the pattern here. 
http://texassmockingcompany.blogspot.ca/2011/04/picture-that-inspired-pattern.html

The instructions were quite detailed as there are many versions of this dress. Overall, they were clear to follow and there were lots of tips too.
It's a good idea to read through all the steps before even cutting out this pattern. It's not a difficult pattern by any means, there are just a lot of versions.

While the illustrations and instructions were straightforward, I managed to goof up the placket. It didn't come out sitting as flat as it should but my trusty iron fixed that problem!
I dithered about adding a belt/tie and in hindsight perhaps a narrow one might have been a good idea.
Next time.
Also, perhaps I should have tried to line up the flowers so that the front panel matched the sides. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough fabric to do that.

If this dress is a little too big for Caitlin, which I suspect it might be, my plan is to make a white blouse that she can wear under this dress in the fall.

Note to self:
For the back skirt, cut on fold and make placket with slit and 2" facing.

Updated Classic

In the Sept/Oct. 2003 issue of Sew Beautiful, I saw this project called "An Updated Classic" by Kris Curtis.
I particularly liked the high yoke version worn by the younger girl in the photo, the pattern being inspired by 1950's style dresses.

The cut out pages have been sitting in my stash bucket of 'to-do patterns' and today, became my 'to do' day for this project.

Actually, I cut it out and smocked it yesterday, but today was construction day. It turned out well and I found the pattern really easy to follow.
I managed to foul up the collar though, and I don't know what I did wrong. However, with a little unpicking and swearing to myself, I made it work.

I was not sure about the instructions for the smocking though. The designer said to base the smocking on multiples of 8 pleats to get the design centered between the points. I couldn't make that work. So if Kris Curtis ever reads this blog, maybe she could enlighten me because I simply couldn't figure it out. Just the same, I managed to make it reasonably balanced and centered.

Here's the front a little closer. I whipped some matching floss on the piping and added lace as well. Perhaps that's where I went wrong with the collar prior to the unpicking and swearing episode.

I added some embroidery flowers on the front, just as in the photo in the magazine.

Here are all the pages in the magazine article, minus the pattern that was also included.


Here's where I got confused with the multiples of 8 pleats instructions.

Here's another method to construct the front that allows the smocker to simply do the whole row omitting the multiples of 8 pleats counting.

It was this picture that grabbed my attention in the beginning. I just love the look of that little blue dress.


Here is my version again. Size 12 months.
Oh, and I put the remaining bit of lace that matches the collar on the double hem.Half of the peach fabric is used up, all of this style of lace, almost all of the white mini-piping, most of the peach thread and I finally got to make up this pattern.