A 'Drapey' Japanese Bubble Dress

When I read about Japanese Pattern Sewalongs there is often a related increase in my sewing, and it was no different when Celina from petitapetitfamily.com and Mie from sewinglikemad.com wrote about their year long sewjapan series back in January.

This is the Japanese pattern book I chose as the dress on the cover is one of my favourites and sewn (& blogged) many times - a sweet version in ladybird corduroy & a pair of bubble dresses for twins.

This time I chose a drapey, pre-pleated fabric from my local fabric shop, though I had doubts if it would hold the 'bubble' effect of the fabric.

When it was sewn up, the fabric gave an a-line shape to the dress. My daughter who had wanted a more fitted dress was happier with this.

This bubble dress is easy to sew, and the Japanese instructions are easy to follow because of the detailed diagrams. My one issue with this pattern is the joining of the lining and the outer fabric which leaves an exposed seam.

As usual, I prefer a clean finish with all seams hidden, something that is particularly important for children's clothes.

For this version I cut the back pattern piece in two, rather than placing it on the fabric fold. (I listed the sewing instruction steps in this post). This allows the dress hem to be pulled out through the back seam and sewn so that it is hidden when the dress is finished . I then sewed an exposed zip and attached the lining at the same time to finish the dress.

The finish is so clean that the dress could almost be worn inside out.

The 'bubble' effect allows for the imagination of an active 9 year old!

We felt the solid colour of the fabric needed something else, so settled on adding ribbons to one of the shoulder seams. We decided that this brown stitched ribbon from janemeans.com would work. These can be left untied or tied in bows. Interestingly, after this was sewn, Burdastyle included a girls dress pattern in the March magazine which had wide ribbon on both shoulders!

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Bubble Dress in Liberty

I've 'mentioned' before how much I love sewing dresses, but it's the little baby dresses that I enjoy the most, and bubble dresses would be the favourites.

This dress wasn't on my list for February, but a friend recently had a third baby girl, and I couldn't resist sewing such a tiny dress (6 months).

The fabrics are from Liberty and probably not colours that would immediately come to mind for a baby girl. However, I had sewn dresses for my friend's two older daughters in June of last year, and decided to use these fabrics again. I suppose the dresses really are much too matchy!!!

For a little difference, I sewed on a beautiful dusky pink/raspberry stitched grosgrain ribbon from janemeans which picked up colours from both fabrics.

I found a template for a dress card, and just had to add a little stitched ribbon to that too.

 

 

The pattern is from Ottobre 6/2012#7 and it's the first time I've used it.

When deciding on patterns for baby dresses, I usually pick those that will be comfortable for the baby to wear. This baby pattern from Ottobre is the one I have used the most, here, and here though trying to tie the ribbons with a wriggly baby might be difficult!

This bubble dress pattern is ideal for baby presents and easy to put on & take off because of the length of the zipper

 

 

I generally avoid zippers on little clothes as I imagine they could be uncomfortable for a small baby. This pattern has a zipper, so I added a placket to the pattern to cover the zip on the inside.

It's a rectangular piece of fabric, about three times the width and 3 cms longer than the zip. I sewed it in, while attaching the lining to the zipper using the same method as for this Liberty dress. The placket is crooked! but at least it's on the inside! For a first attempt, it worked and should be very comfortable for the baby to wear

 

I was particularly pleased with how the ends of the ribbon were aligned at the centre back!

For the older sisters, I made some hair ties using a free pattern from Oliver+S.

 

Perhaps it's from watching too many old films, but the idea of a dress presented in a box has always appealed to me! A shoe box, lined with tissue paper, was the perfect size for this dress. The logos were covered with washi tape and I tied some more narrow stitched ribbon in a bow to add to the fun of opening it!

 

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Japanese Bubble Dress - twice!

There's still wedding related sewing going on - these are dresses for my SIL-to-be's nieces. The pattern is from a Japanese Pattern Book that I've used a few times before

I was encouraged to sew these again by the Balloon Dress Sew-a-long on the Japanese Sewing Books blog (written by Yifarn and a 'must-read' for anyone interested in Japanese patterns).

 

The fabric is a babycord from Stenzo, and while I didn't want the dresses too matchy, I couldn't resist swapping the pocket fabric.

 

The Sew-a-long is very helpful, but I made a major change to the pattern to ensure the hem seam would be hidden.

I will try to keep it short!!

1. Cut the outer and lining back pattern pieces as 2 pieces and include a seam allowance where the fold line is.
2. Sew the outer fabric at the shoulders. Sew the lining fabric at the shoulders.
3. Put the lining and outer fabric right sides together and sew at the armholes and at the neckline (stop just at the seam allowance at the back neckline.
4. Turn the dress right side out by pushing the right and left back pieces including lining through their corresponding shoulders.
5. Sew the side seams of the outer and lining fabric on both sides, matching seams.
6. Sew the centre back seams (leaving an opening for turning) just as far as the back opening. Turn the seam allowances at the neckline to the inside and press seams flat on lining and outer fabric.
7. For the button loop, one method is to Insert and pin a loop of thin elastic into one side of the neckline from the outside.
8. Topstitch the neckline, including the back neckline opening, Topstitch the armholes also.
9. Attach pockets as per pattern.
10. Gather the outer dress hem.
11. To sew the hem, pin only about 2 inches/5cm of the back seams of the lining and outer fabric right sides together.
12. Turn the dress inside out through the opening in the back lining seam, keeping the pins in place. Continue pinning the hems together (the dress outer and lining will almost form a loop. Sew the lining and outer hem together.
13. When the hem is sewn, turn the dress right side out through the back opening, and hand sew the opening.
14. Ta daaaa!!!! Hopefully!

I much prefer to sew the dress this way, and it leaves it looking very neat.

 

The twins are about 1 year old, and I made the dresses larger so there should be no problem with fit. It's a perfect dress to give as a present, when you have no measurements, because the fit at the chest is generous.

 

Edited to add: Linked to Justine's Sew & Tell Saturday Pin It Now!