More Little Lisettes

I'm so delighted that I got these dresses (Little Lisette 2063) finished - thanks to KCWC. It doesn't seem much, after a week of sewing, but a few 'inconveniences' such as not enough fabric, and cutting pieces out incorrectly caused some delays!

The pink dress is for my just-turned-6 year old niece, who told me her favourite colours were pink, purple (no surprise!) and orange. My daughter loves spending time with her, so enjoyed helping me decide on fabric. My niece has blue eyes and light brown hair, so I wasn't sure if pink was her colour, so the neck binding has some blue stripes which I hope will help.

The neckline binding is a lovely detail on this pattern, and is explained very clearly, especially how neatly the ends are finished.

The buttons are on the opposite sides of the dresses because of a mistake I made in cutting out the bodice pieces for the white dress. It was almost a disaster as I had no more fabric left, so lots of alternative thinking was needed. If I hadn't added lining to the dresses, it might have been much more difficult to fix!

 

The inside, lined with a very lightweight cotton. I flat-felled all the side seams, as well as the ruffle seams so the dresses would be comfortable to wear.

 

 

 

My favourite part, the ribbons which hide the seam allowance of the ruffles. 3 of the ribbons are Farbenmix, and I have forgotten where I bought the one with pink elephants. My daughter picked these out, I think they're her favourite part too.

 

The white fabric is a Hilco cotton from Dotsnstripes, and, if I remember correctly, the polka dot is a Stenzo from Volksfaden

As I only had 1 metre of each of these fabrics, I had to cut the lower 2 ruffles as rectangles instead of curved like the pattern piece. These were cut a few inches wider than the pattern pieces. I also cut the underdress wider at the lower hem, which make the dress more twirly.

 

My daughter had a lot of fun trying these on. This is, she told me, her 'funky dance'!??

 

And the twirling picture .....

 

I really thought all the ruffles would get the better of me, but once I got started they weren't so bad. As I have no ruffler foot, and always get tangled in all the thread from the other methods, I use a method described in Simon Henry's book The Little Best Dress. It just involves pinning the fabric to be gathered in even sections to the smaller piece, and then sewing the seam while pushing the fabric under the foot with a seam ripper, or large needle. It takes a little practice to get the gathers even, but works!

The white floral dress is for my daughter to wear to another niece's First Communion in a week, but the weather is so cold here at the moment, I may just need to sew her a warmer dress!

 

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