Monday, May 9, 2011

My favorite kind of sewing - girl's dresses

I've been sewing lots of girls dresses again recently because of family occasions and niece's birthdays. After sewing my son's jacket, it is just such enjoyable sewing to be able to put colours and fabric and trims together and turn them into pretty dresses.

This dress is the Farbenmix Elodie pattern again, the first of 2 dresses I made for my god-daughter. She turned 6 the end of March and as the pattern is sized 5-6 and 7-8, I drew a line between these 2 sizes, which roughly corresponded to 6-7 (I hoped!)

The red fabric was bought locally, the skirt fabric is a Stenzo cotton from DotsnStripes and the ribbon is also from Farbenmix.

The picture above shows the inside back with the zip covered, and below shows the seams finished by turning them in and topstitching them.
There are 8 panels in the skirt, and sewn together they make a circle at the hem, which I hemmed using bias binding.

No hats this time, but I made a bag to match.

This pattern makes a gorgeous dress, but I find that the bodice part is quite short and I add about 2 inches to the neckline and shoulder which makes it longer and allows enough fabric to make a casing for the elastic. The zip at the back would be better if it was an invisible zip as it would sit better on the curve of the skirt. Despite these minor issues, I made another version of this dress for my daughter for Easter - I'm on a roll! Pin It Now!  

9 comments:

  1. Super cute! And with a matching bag! Your daughter must be over the moon. It is fun to sew little girls dresses. It's all fun and flounce and no fitting issues!

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  2. It's such a pretty dress! I love how full the skirt is...I bet it's perfect for twirling. The inside finishes you did are fantastic. That's one area I really need to work on in my sewing.

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  3. Thanks Karin, you're so right - it's stress free sewing, except to decide where a ribbon should go :-)

    Cindy, thanks, it is REALLY twirly! The inside finishes are time-consuming on this dress because of all the seams, but I made an extra effort because it was a gift.

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  4. It's a lovely dress! I struggle with buying clothes for my 6 year old - all the shops are full of pre-teen stuff and what I want is something charming like this.

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  5. Mise, glad you like it :-) I'm a bit out of the loop of what's in the shops, but it's such a pity that pre-teen is being sold for 6 year olds.

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  6. I love this pattern, and I love the way this dress turned. I'm currently at the process of making two Elodies for my girls, and I didn't even consider combining fabrics! I really like it1

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  7. Mise, glad you like it. I'm a bit out of the loop with the shops, but it's hard to believe that they're selling pre-teen to 6 year olds.

    Michal, I can't wait to see your Elodies :-) My stash has a lot of 1 metre lengths of fabric, so it wasn't enough to make Elodie for age 6, that's why I used 2 fabrics.

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  8. A charming little dress and well made too.Sewing for those who like it (and I do)is a great way to experience flow which is a great way to combat depression.I hope your feeling good today.

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  9. Hello dolldoll, thanks for stopping by. I have read about 'flow' and interestingly, the author of the book 'Sewing Clothes Kids Love' wrote a page about it at the start of her book. It happens for me when I'm deciding on patterns, fabric combinations and trims. Noticing 'good' moments in the day and what I have achieved ( some days it can be just getting the laundry folded :-) are very helpful in lifting my mood. I'll click over to say hello.
    Angela

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