Simplicity Sewing Challenge - Reviewing Toddler Dress 1206

Tuesday 30 August 2016

 
Hello,

Today has been a very sunny, beautiful August day. The perfect day for my little lady to wear her new Simplicity dress I stitched up for her in this strawberry printed fabric. Now four, she loves that 'Mummy made me a dress', and has been my creative director through the project. In this post I'm talking about how myself and Little L (my daughter) made this oh so pretty dress.


Back in July I was sent this pattern to make as part of the Simplicity Blogging Challenge. I entered under Children's Wear as I loved the little girl's dress on the right and had a stash of cotton fabrics awaiting the perfect pattern. I've been sewing Simplicity patterns since I was a teenager (about 20 years) and love the easy to follow patterns and they go together like a dream.

Sewing for a slim four year old isn't easy, so I thought that the swing dress would be easier to fit and sit well on the yoke and on her shoulders.



We decided on view A, the sleeveless version so we could put a t-shirt under it on cooler days and decided to cut the skirt frill half the size so the dress wasn't too long.  I wanted to make it smaller under the arms than the pattern but she liked it's swing coolness which was great for today. I made the bow but Little L didn't want to add it to the design. We may make it into a hair slide for the dresses next outing!



I also added poppers down the back and created a false placket out of bias instead of a back zip fastening. The zip isn't too comfortable again her spine in a car seat. I try to avoid zips on the back of dresses for her.

                               
The dress fitted really well on her shoulders with the yoke. It was really straight forward to stitch and no unpicking! I was worried about pulling the threads on the print if I had to. I hand finished the dress with a slip stitched hem. I love the finish you get from a good hem.


The instructions for the yoke were really clear, I've added a photo below. I liked the idea of biasing around the arm hole instead of faffing with a facing. It gave a really clean finish.


We loved the neckline as it's really delicate with a neat arm seam finish.


Here are a few snaps of Little L having fun in her new dress...







Thank-you to Simplicity, I really love the pattern and we will be making it again.

Happy Crafting,

Samantha x

The pattern for this project was gifted but all views are my own.