Ruffled Fabric Dress for a 7th Birthday

There are a quite a few makes to post about, and this seems like a good place to start!

 

My youngest turned 7 two weeks ago which, of course, means cake and is also, always, an excuse for a new dress.

She loved the ruffled fabric, which I had bought as a remnant piece from a local shop and the animals on the Stenzo corduroy fabric were always going to be a winner.

 

I planned on sewing this dress almost a year ago, and had already sewn up the ruffled fabric, but couldn't remember why I hadn't finished it. It was probably because of how time-consuming it was to sew with the ruffled fabric!

This fabric takes a lot of extra preparation and work. Care needs to be taken in cutting it out, especially with the curved yokes of this pattern. For the first time sewing with this fabric, a pattern with as many straight edges as possible would be better and avoid patterns with a lot of seam lines.

The ruffles at the side seams also needed to be carefully matched, and the easiest way of doing this was to baste them together first. The end result of that extra time and effort is very much worth it with the side seams neatly aligned!

The pattern, Mistinguette, is from a French company - Her Little World and it's one of their free patterns. Most of their beautifully designed patterns are for girls, with some for dolls and boys too.

I've sewn with their patterns a few times as the styles are a little more unusual that the widely available 'gathered skirt with plain bodice' type of pattern! This is a birthday dress from a few years ago (2011) and another dress & dolls dress from one of the sewing pattern books also published by Her Little World.

 

 

I was a little concerned that the hem yoke would restrict movement, so I cut a much larger size which is evident from the fit on the shoulders.

There was no need for me to upsize, as the dress is well designed. The hem band as in the pattern, falls just above the knee so that it doesn't affect the movement of an active 7 year old. It is slightly longer here because of cutting the larger size.

As my daughter gets older, I am very conscious of including her in the dressmaking process, despite the fact that I have clear ideas of styles I like and the fabric and notions I want to sew together!

The pattern calls for a button and loop closure at the top, but when the dress was finished we decided a lace zipper would look better. Though I preferred a pink or red lace zipper, she had her heart set on orange which picks up a minor colour in the fabric.

The dress was a hit and the lack of twirliness is more than compensated for by the movement of the ruffles on the fabric.

 

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