Burda knit dress & using tiny ribbon pieces

 

All parents of school-going children should be prepared for the 'colour' days that happen in schools which are often for fundraising. There are red days to support county teams, blue days for autisim awareness, green days for our national Saint and last week we had a yellow day for cancer support. I don't normally sew for each colour day, but this time I was glad of the excuse to take a break from communion dress sewing.

This girls dress is from the current issue of Burdastyle magazine 4/15 no.136. Every month there are a few children's patterns in the magazine and I have always liked their sizing and fit. This dress was no different. I graded up a size to 134, just to allow for some growing room, but the dress would have still fit well.

 

 

 

It's an interesting design, with the neck facing applied to the outside. It is also clearly well-designed as the facing fit beautifully and I love how neatly the shoulder seams align. This would be straightforward on a woven fabric, but usually much more difficult on a knit fabric.

 

 

 

Though I used a stable knit fabric (not very stretchy) I didn't want the shoulders to get stretched with wear. The best way to do this is to stabilise the shoulder seams with interfacing which is hidden. I took a different approach by choosing to make the stabiliser more obvious and picked some janemeans stitched ribbon.

 

 

 

The green stitched ribbon is placed under the shoulder seam while it is being sewn, and a second line of stitching is sewn along the ribbon and seam edge. Once the ribbon and seam are pressed it forms a neat finish to the seam as well as preventing the shoulder seam from stretching and sagging. Of course this is also a perfect way to use those tiny pieces of beautiful ribbon leftover from bigger projects.

 

 

 

I altered the pattern by not including a back opening, and not adding neckline and pocket piping. The instructions recommended sewing the side seams and then inserting the sleeves but it was much quicker to sew each sleeve to it's armhole and the sew each sleeve seam and side seam all at once.

 

 

 

I just had a day to sew the dress so unusually didn't consult my daughter on the fabric and the pattern, but she was thrilled to have a yellow dress and got very involved (obviously, I suppose!) in picking out the fringe and neckline trims.

 

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