If Boden Did Maternity: AKA The Breton Tunic Dress

Almost exactly three years ago, during my first pregnancy, I made a top that reflected my then-obsession with the clothing website Modcloth. That garment looked like it could have been stocked by them, if they had a maternity range. Well, it seems as though I've done it again. This time I've made a tunic dress that may be reflecting the current Boden-bias of my Pinterest boards! Just look at this, and you'll see what I mean. I was an accident, I promise! 

Pattern:

As I wrote in slightly greater detail in my Spring/preggers sewing plans post, basically I'm not over this vintage Simplicity 7023 pattern (pictured below). I love the 1960's Breton top I made from it so much that a longer tunic/dress variation was kind of inevitable. 

Ultimately, I think the best silhouette for a tunic dress version of this pattern would be more like this or this: basically, straighter. However, I wanted it to be something I could wear for a a good chunk of my pregnancy, so instead I frankensteined the above pattern with the Tova pattern to create a gentle A-line shape that hopefully still looks fairly straight but is a bit more accommodating. When I've finished being pregnant and stopped breast feeding, I'll skim the side seams in again so it will have something close to the silhouette I'd prefer. 

Fabric:

I was given about 1.7m of this amazing striped double knit from Josie, the owner of Fabric Godmother when I went to visit her at the end of last year. I fell in love with it hard but had already blown my fabric-purchasing budget on several other pieces. Yet she could see how much I yearned for it so kindly put me out of my misery and gave me a length! I wish I could link to it on her site but, as with so much of her stock, she sold out of it super quick so I'm afraid I can't. 

This fabric is either synthetic, or a blend with a heavy synthetic content, but it feels lovely to wear and not at all sweaty. It does, however, retain the benefit of not needing to be ironed at all! As you may be able to tell from these photos, I recent went on a little holiday (near Alicante in Spain) and it was the perfect garment to take as it doesn't crease at all (apart from the pockets, see below). 

The only thing that was challenging about this fabric was the fact that the white stripes are raised. That made pattern matching at the centre back seam, side seams and sleeve seams pretty tricky as the stripes kept sliding off each other. The back seam looks less than perfect (not that I care because, you know, it's at the back) but I'd kind of got the hang of it as I went and the side seams and sleeve seams look ok. I probably should have unearthed my walking foot or something, but I was rushing slightly to get this done before my holiday. 

I knew this simple tunic dress was going to need pepping up with some pockets. My first plan was to use the striped fabric for them, with the stripe running vertically and with white flat piping round the edge. After wasting an hour or so attempting this, I abandoned them because they were looking rubbish. I then turned to a scrap of the washed denim that I also used for the facings (leftovers from my Tova top) which worked much better because I could get a really nice, crisp-looking finish with that. Luckily for everyone, I can link to the washed denim (also from Fabric Godmother), as she still has it in stock. Although I'm so in love with it and keep thinking of sewing projects that it would be great for, so I may have to snaffle some more...

Thoughts:

MAJOR SUCCESS. It could be argued that the tunic dress looks a tad frumpy in these pictures, but I really think that that's just the stage of pregnancy I'm at right now. I don't have the deliciously full, obviously-pregnant bump yet, but I said goodbye to my waistline months ago! I wore this dress heaps on holiday, both with and without jeans underneath, depending on the temperature. I'm really excited about its future incarnation with the altered side seams.

I can see at least one more version of this pattern in my future. I'm thinking a basic black top, perhaps with oversized patch pockets, that overall with have a beatnik chick vibe, a bit like this.

Cost:

Striped fabric: £0 (given to me by Fabric Godmother and no longer in stock, but they do have some nice-looking black and white striped Ponte for £16 per metre that might work well for a similar looking garment)
Scraps of washed denim: £0 (I factored its cost into a previous make, but it can be found here for £10 per metre)
Pattern: £0 (I actually have no recollection of obtaining this pattern, but seeing as this is the third time I've used it now, I'm sure its cost doesn't need factoring in anymore)
Total = £0

Now obviously that cost outcome is questionable, but I literally didn't need to spend any money between the point the idea for it struck me until it became a wearable garment, so I'm sticking with it!

Vintage Cord Bunny Applique Dress

Well, its quality rather quantity that you're seeing right now! I was super excited to be taking part in the KCW sewalong/challenge last week, but a couple of days in and I was struck down with the lurgy, so I only got to complete one garment. Sad times. Anyways, let me tell you about what I was able to achieve...

Fabric:

As I mentioned in my last post, I wanted to take the opportunity to make something slightly more time consuming than the quick scrap-busters I've recently been knocking out. I've got some lovely pieces of fabric that have been patiently waiting in my stash for years that aren't ear marked for any specific usage. I thought last week would be a great chance to explore the potential in a few of them. 

I'm guessing that this piece of floral printed corduroy is vintage, it really reminds me of pinafores and dungarees from the late 70's. At one point I had vague plans to make some shorts for my tiny friend Kirstin (there wasn't much of this fabric!) after she mentioned that it reminded her of her childhood, but I think I used something else in the end. It's quite thick and pretty stiff, so a pinafore dress was probably always going to be the best use for it anyhow. 

I considered making patch pockets from the leather to bring a slightly contemporary vibe to this garment, possibly using the original pattern's pocket piece as a guide. However, I know that Dolores will engage far more with a garment if it features an animal, character or shape that she recognises, so the leather pockets became leather bunny appliques. I had a lot of fun with my walking foot stitching down these bunnies, which I first secured with some blobs of copydex. I really like how the bunnies are now sitting in a field of flowers. 

Pattern:

I almost used the same pattern as the fawn pinafore dress, but I then unearthed this vintage pattern that's been in my stash for years. I bought it pretty cheaply from Snoopers Paradise in Brighton about four or five years ago, and it was originally published in 1978. I cut the size 3, and because I find some little girl dress patterns from the 50's, 60's and 70's disturbingly short, I added about 10cm to the length. Dolores is coming up to 2 and a half, and I think this dress may fit her this time next year, and maybe will continue to do so until she's nearly five! 

It was a super simple make. Aside from the length, the only other change I made was the addition of a centre back seam to make it fit on the limited quantity of fabric. The one element I'm not wild about is that I think, in hindsight, that the buttonholes on the shoulders don't sit close enough to the edge, which is making the overlaps stick out a little bit. 

Thoughts:

The combination of vintage pattern and (probably) vintage fabric along with a dash of leather detailing is making me pretty happy here. Dolores seems to love it too, but whether she still feels that way about it in a year's time remains to be seen!

Cost:

Fabric: £0 (I'm pretty sure I was given this fabric)
Lining fabric: £0 (left overs from some sampling work I did last year)
Pattern: £1.50 (I may use it once again)
Leather: £0 (from a number of little samples given to me by Claire)
Butons: £0 (from my stash but were donated to me)
Total: £1.50

I'm pleased with that. Now I just need to make sure I don't forget about it so it actually sees lots of wear to make its creation worth while. How about you? If you participated in KCW, how did you get on? I hope the lurgy didn't get you too!

Small World Louisa Dress. Plus: Zip Query

A child's garment in my mind should be a relatively quick undertaking. This one was not. My goodness, this dress felt like a long time coming. From printing out the pattern to finishing the final seam probably took about four months, with other projects working alongside it, of course. But! How cute! Let's discuss...

Pattern:

I was waiting for a good excuse to buy the Louisa dress pattern by Compagnie M, and then Anna from Paunnet blog offered up a discount code as part of a blog tour for this very pattern, so what was a girl to do? I've seen about three thousand amazing versions of this pattern on the interwebs (and pinned most of them), in fact I'm not sure it's possible to make a rubbish, or even a 'meh', one. If I were to dissect what I like about this pattern, I would have to say that it's the following elements: simple A-line silhouette, feature buttons, piping and the possibilities for contrast fabrics. 

Having made it, I am still in love with all these elements. However, what I wasn't expecting is just how many damn pieces it requires! The PDF format results in a sizeable layout (for a children's garment) which requires some hefty taping together. And then you have to trace each piece out as they are overlapping each other on the layout, I guess to prevent using up a whole forest each time a copy gets sold. I must admit, I stalled on that part a bit as my limited evening-time energy could only take me so far.   

Having made it, I would argue that the Louisa dress is a deceptively simple garment. It involved a lot of construction steps, not least because I made the fully lined version. If I'd picked the panelled or split back options, it would have involved even more pattern pieces and construction steps. But that's just me having a moan. It was a fun project, but I would advise anyone going into it not to expect a completed garment after four hours of making it for the first time. Unless you are a sewing ninja.

I made the size 2, expecting that it'd fit Dolores this Autumn (she's 2 in a couple of weeks, WHAT?). However, it's come up considerably bigger. I'm not sure she'll be wearing it much before her third birthday, which is a shame because now that she is able to name almost every picture on it, she's currently very entertained by the fabric. Speaking of which... 

Fabric:

I was kindly given a metre (could have been 1.5 metres now I think about it) of this amazing organic corduroy by my blog sponsor The Village Haberdashery, where I also teach. The design is called Small World, and is one of the designs by amazing sewing lady Rae Hoekstra that is part of a collection which is also called Small World. The fabric is produced by Cloud9 Fabrics, and if you want to buy new fabric, I'd recommend their wares as all their fabrics are 100% certified organic and they have high ethical standards of social as well as environmental practices. 

Previously, the only organic cotton fabrics I'd sewn with were interlock knit and quilting-type wovens. I was excited to give sewing with this fabric a whirl, because organic corduroy doesn't seem to be common place. It didn't disappoint. It's such a lovely, soft, fine, needle cord, perfect for children's wear and really easy to sew with. 

I used some turquoise habotai silk for the lining from my stash, where the red piping and red buttons also came from. The only thing I bought for this project (aside from the pattern), was the zip. Boom.

Thoughts:

The cuteness levels of this dress are high. Although sadly, as much as I love the style and its potential for different variations, I think this pattern is a bit too involved for me to use over and over again. But having traced all those pieces in the size 2, I may make another at some point next year to have made the investment of money and time spent taping and tracing worth while. Next time, I'll probably make a summer version and draft a neck facing, omitting the need for lining which should speed things up a bit. 

Now here's my query: how do I avoid this crinkled effect around my invisible zip? Any ideas why this  happens sometimes? I'm sure I'm not alone in ending up with this effect on occasion. Would using a lightweight zip eliminate the crinkling? A good steaming with my iron did nothing to help. I'm not too bothered about it with this particular dress, because I doubt Dolores will stand still long enough for it to be very noticeable, but I'd like to avoid it going forward... Thoughts please!!!!!

Organic Cotton Paris Jersey Dress

Here's a cute dress that's been waiting in the wings to be blogged about. I'm pleased with it for lots of reasons, which is a relief because making garments that require you to trace the pattern pieces first takes a level of effort that isn't always easy to come by! 

Pattern:

The Autumn 4/2013 edition of Ottobre magazine (pictured above) is one of about three that I own that have now justified their price several times over. I've already used several of the patterns from this edition and have ear-marked more for when Dolores grows into the next size range. 

So what did I use from it this time? I was for looking something to make from some lovely organic printed jersey that I'd been sent (more on that in a bit). I delved into my expansive Kiddie Clothes Making Pinterest board for inspiration and found this dress pin (from a pattern by Too Sweets patterns on Etsy). It's kind of like a set-in sleeve version of the Field Trip dress I made, but with a more A-line shape. So I started hunting through my Ottobres looking for a basic T-shirt pattern to adapt when I came across the Circus Horse dress (pictured below) from the aforementioned Autumn 4/2013 edition. It has almost the exact silhouette that I was looking for, however it has raglan rather than set-in sleeves. Instead of faffing about adapting another pattern, I decided to go with the Circus Horse dress instead. 

I made the smallest size (92) which is currently one or two sizes too big for Dolores, but as I've said many times, I'm pleased to have garments for her 'in the bank'. I'm not sure when she'll get to wear it exactly, but I'm hopeful that it'll have a pretty long lifespan. I also added 2cms to the length as she tends to be a bit skinnier than the Ottobre patterns are designed for. I'm hoping that when it no longer works as a dress, that it'll become a tunic to be worn with leggings. 

It was pretty simple to put together, although I complicated things slightly by adding some red jersey piping to emphasise the raglan sleeve seams and break up the print a bit. I used my twin needle on the neck binding and cuff binding, and they look pretty profesh if I say so myself (from the outside at least!). 

Fabric:

Back in March-ish time, I was contacted by myfabrics.co.uk who offered me a choice of free fabric to sew with and review. I took it as an opportunity to further my investigations into organic cotton: to find out what is available out there for home sewers and what it is like to sew with. They had a few organic options on their site, mostly solid coloured jerseys and two novelty printed options. I requested some of the printed stuff as it looked really fun, and they kindly sent it to me (and have been incredibly patient with me and my much-delayed review).

When I received the fabric, I was immediately taken with the softness and handle, but a bit disappointed with the colours of the print. In the flesh they weren't as vibrant as the thumbnail on the site. I can't link to it because it is not currently available, although they have many MANY other amazing non-organic novelty printed jerseys currently in stock. WHY AREN'T THE ANCHOR DESIGNS PRINTED ON ORGANIC COTTON?! Riddle me that. 

This organic cotton jersey was lovely to cut and sew with, and the weight is perfect for a jersey dress, but also probably for a T-shirt or leggings. The softness that seems to be a feature of (all/most?) organic cotton is ideal for children's clothing, and the 5% elastane content in this particular piece should aid stretch-recovery and movement for a crazy toddler. I can't comment on how it launders after repeated use, because this garment is still too big (as highlighted in these last two photos!) and it hasn't needed to go through the wash yet.

Thoughts:

As far as I can tell from a garment that is yet to be in regular rotation, this seems to be a real success. I love the pattern AND the fabric, and I guess it's in the eye of the beholder as to whether they are a good pairing. I definitely plan to use the pattern pieces again, and maybe make 3/4 length or short sleeved versions as well in lighter-weight knit. 

And when my stash has run dry of knit, and if the charity shops aren't turning out viable garments to harvest it from, I'll definitely consider buying organic jersey/knit fabric in the future. Although I'll make sure it has the GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) certification so conforms with standards at every stage of manufacture.  

African Wax Print Geranium Dress: Plus, I'm Tapping Out

Here it is peops, my second and final garment for this summer's 'Traveling' themed KCW. And I give up. But let's talk about the garment first. Oh, and if you don't like pictures of cute toddlers, or the colour orange, or eyes, then you may want to skip this post entirely. 

Pattern:

This is my second go using the Made By Rae's Geranium pattern for Dolores, and my forth go at it in total. I wrote pretty thoroughly about it in the Liberty print version blog post if you want to know my thoughts on it. But you can probably guess how I feel about it simply by the fact that I've made it four times now. 

This time round I used the plain armholes like the Liberty print one, but opted for the V-notch neckline and gathered skirt options. I'm not sure why, but I feel a bold print (and let's face it, you don't get much bolder than this one!) suits the gathered skirt style, and plain or very subtle/small prints look better with the pleated style. I think the formulae of crazy fabric + traditional style OR traditional/subtle fabric + more interesting design works well for children's wear.

Fabric and Notions:

If you've been following my blog for a couple of years, this fabric may look familiar; it once took the form of a big fat horrendous FAIL of a maternity garment. Once I had finally stopped laughing about that dress, I put it away with the intention of reusing the fabric, even though I still have metres and metres of it left uncut. I just couldn't waste the fabric, like I'd wasted my time and energy.

If you've made it this far into the post, it's probably already seared your retinas, however let me tell you a bit more about it. It's a medium weight African wax cotton fabric printed with an insane design of eyes and abstract Aztec-y diamonds. It feels and behaves like quilting cotton, and kind of makes the skirt stick out a little bit. I worked hard to achieve a linear pattern match at the seams, but through absolutely no effort on my part, I seem to have nailed an almost exact pattern match on the skirt's back seam and one of the side seams. Like, the eyes are complete. I don't think I couldn't have done that if I'd tried. 

The bodice is lined in a scrap of cream silk habotai from my stash, and despite intense amounts of clipping into the bodice seam allowances before turning it through and very careful pressing, you get slight glimpses of it peeking out. I'm not about to attempt to source bright orange lining fabric and then try to buy only 15 cms of it though, so I'll have to get over it. 

To extend the African theme further still, I used these little zebra buttons for the back closure. They were a gift from the lovely Maggie from Textile Garden (my sponsors, FYI). You can find the zebra ones, plus many many more amazing novelty buttons here. My initial button choice was some giraffes (also given to me by Maggie), but they required vertical button holes which really wouldn't have worked for this dress. No matter, African savannah theme remains intact. (Please don't leave a comment if you happen to know that African wax fabric is from an entirely different part of Africa than where zebras live or something!)

Thoughts on the Dress:

Aside from nearly making my eyes bleed when I look at it, I think this is a pretty awesome garment. The only thing I'd criticise, aside from the aforementioned comment on the lining peeking out, it that the scale of the V-notch is a little small for my liking. If I use this pattern again (which I probably will) and use the V-notch option (which I probably will), I'll make it bigger so it stands out more, even if I'm using more subtle fabric.

The only other thing that could have improved the final look is if I'd found the time and energy to make a matching sun hat. However, I really don't think this dress will get that much wear that it warrants its own special hat! 

Thoughts on This Season's KCW:

So that's me done. I've only completed two garments this time, and I probably didn't sew for a total of seven hours (although I've definitely stopped trying to complete the required seven hours within the specified week). The truth is, I've been ill all week and struggling to entertain Dolores at the same time. She's been sick too and neither of us have had much sleep for agessssss. I was hoping to complete the two projects that I had had brewing anyway, and then bust out something fresh (to me) inspired by the Traveling theme. But it wasn't meant to be.

And, not that anyone should notice this, but I've been blogging way more frequently for the last couple of months than has been my usual routine. I've still got a bit of a backlog of projects to share and topics to discuss in blog post form, but I need to slow up a bit again because I'm heaping pressure and stress onto myself for no good reason. Hmm, starting to realise why I might be ill at the moment! I'm going house-sitting tomorrow for a five days, so that's drawn a line under the challenge, as well as running out of steam. Anyway, this wasn't meant to be a pity party, I just wanted to explain why I'm sadly tapping out of this awesome sewing challenge early. On the plus side, I have to say that sewing (and children's wear sewing in particular) is a regular activity for me at the moment, so if one of the motivations behind the KCW challenges is to kick start someone's flagging sewjo, then I'm pleased to say that I don't feel I need to gain that from it. If you are taking part, I really hope you are having a super fun week!

Liberty Print Geranium Dress

A couple of Saturday's ago I taught a class at the Village Haberdashery on how to make the Geranium dress pattern by Made By Rae. Getting to and from the VH from where I live usually takes at least 3.5 hours door to door, so when I finally got home I was exhausted. When I arrived home, I got changed and poured myself a glass of wine, but instead of watching some TV or some other equally relaxing/brain-numbing activity, I got some fabric out and started making this dress. We have been invited to a baptism party the following day (not my family's usual habitat), and I realised Dolores didn't have anything suitably pretty to wear. Super-tired? Check. Imminent deadline? Check. Not ideal circumstances for a sewing project!  However I couldn't be more happy with the outcome.

Pattern:

I've waxed lyrical about the Geranium dress pattern before, and now that I have made it a few times I can confirm that it really is a very well drafted pattern with many awesome design options. You could make a squillion variations from the same pattern, the results of which would all look like very different garments. For this dress I used the U-shaped cut out neckline, plain armholes, pleated skirt and dress length options (phew!). I did, however, avoid the in-seam pockets which are part of the pleated skirt option. I don't think Dolores would know what to do with in-seam pockets just yet, plus I can imagine that her running around with her hands in some pockets would result in lots more falling over than happens already!

Having taught how to sew the pattern earlier that day, the construction method was firmly imprinted in my brain so I didn't need to spend time referring back to the instructions. Therefore, I managed to cut out and make this dress in about two hours total (I left the buttonholes to do in the daylight the following day before the party!). I used the 18-24 months pieces, Dolores is 20 months now and the fit is spot on. 

Fabric:

I've admitted to this before, but I keep most of my fabric stash in Dolores's bedroom! It's all folded neatly and a set of shelves, and personally I think it looks quite pretty. Whilst I'm rocking her before putting her down to sleep, the fabric is in my sightline and I'm reminded of what I have stashed away. I was so pleased to finally use this beautiful fabric that had been on those shelves for a couple of years! It was a gift from the very lovely Susan who runs Sewbox.co.uk who sent me this and another Liberty print cotton whilst I was pregnant. At the time I obviously didn't know that Dolores would end up with such bright blue eyes, and I LOVE dressing her in blue garments because they accentuate that feature. This Liberty cotton is from the Bloomsbury collection, the print design called is Charles. Sewbox no longer seems to have this exact print, but there are three other colour-ways you can find here.  

This Liberty cotton has a bit more body than the other Liberty Bloomsbury fabric she sent, which is great because it helped to make the pleats and U-shaped cutout detail really nice and crisp. I used the same fabric to line the bodice, and in total the pattern used under a metre. If I get round to it, I'll going to see if I can squeeze a pair of shorts for Dolores out of what is left over. 

Thoughts:

I can't tell you how much I love this little dress. Dolores rarely seems to acknowledge the clothes that she's wearing, but when we first put this dress on her she, too, seemed pretty pleased with herself! I'm so happy with the pairing of fabric and pattern, and the fit is really good. I want to make the most of having traced the pattern pieces, so I plan to make another for this summer, although I'm very aware that woven garments have a much shorter lifespan in terms of fit than all the knit garments that I usually make for her have.  

What about you? What pattern have you been thoroughly impressed by recently? What fabric and pattern combo have you used that turned out to be spot on?

Fawn Pinafore Dress

Alrighty! The last garment I made for last week's Kid's Clothes Week. Taking the 'Wild Things' theme in a slightly calmer direction than the two leopard print garments, here's a little denim pinafore dress with leather fawn appliqué and galloping horses on the facings. 

Pattern:

Remember the pile of awesome children's sewing patterns I was given last year? This pinafore pattern (Newlook 6578, pictured below) was amongst them, given to me by lovely Adey from The Sew Convert. This pattern has been playing on my mind since I received it, it looks like such a useful (as well as quick!) potential project that could work in many different fabrics. 

So having actually used it, I can definitely confirm that it is both a quick and a simple make. In fact, the pattern includes some appliqué shapes and a stupid head-triangle in an attempt to make it look a bit trickier! My copy of the pattern was still factory folded when I opened it up, so all sizes were in tact. I traced the size 2. I'm sure you'll be bored of me saying this by now but I have to: this garment came out a bit big for Dolores to wear right now, but that was my aim as I want her to get full use from it. The only thing the pattern didn't call for which I probably would do next time is to stitch a row of topstitching/edge-stitching all around the top and along the straps. Not that there's anything stopping me from adding it to this version, aside from my own laziness! 

Fabric:

I think I may have made a bit of a mistake here. I used some more of the slightly stretchy denim that I'd also made my denim sweet shorts fail from. I thought the stretch in the denim might make it more comfortable to wear, but I fear the fabric is a bit too thick. The shape sticks out a bit like a lampshade, but I'm hoping that will be less apparent when she is a bit bigger and fills it out more. 

The appliqué, however, I am super pleased with. I have a small stash of leather samples that were given to me by Claire from Sew Incidentally (how generous is the sewing community?!). I believe she rescued them from a bin at work! I've had this fawn outline print out since I worked at Traid where I used to do appliquéing from time to time, but hadn't used this particular design before. I think this appliqué works perfectly for children's wear: it's a cute addition, but not too girly when cut out of leather. I used a fancy new foot on my sewing machine to make sewing leather easier, but I'll write about that in more detail when I review some sewing machine feet in a post that will publish in June. 

I'm also very happy with the choice of fabric for the facings. This light-weight horse print cotton used to be part of a dress that was donated to me by my friend Umi. There was a massive rip under one arm that would have been extremely difficult to mend so it got assigned to the cutting up pile instead. Umi's dress was really tiny and the style was comprised of panels so it was tricky to harvest much fabric from it, so children's wear it was destined to be! I think these facings look great in this print. 

Thoughts:

I'm really glad to have found such a great pinafore pattern and I intend to make a stack of these over the next few years (the pattern goes up to size 4). They will be great for layering with vests, t-shirts, tights and cardigans. Plus the basic shape is a fabulous canvas for all sorts of creative use of appliqués or applied pockets, or for playing with details like a scalloped hem. Do you have any ideas how this pinafore pattern could be jazzed up? 

My poor choice of fabric is a bit annoying though. It made for easy appliquéing but the sticky-outiness of the overall shape looks a bit silly. I'm still going to put her in it though, and I'm hoping that it'll soften after several wears and washes with fabric conditioner. 

Refashion Friday: Men's Shirt to Toddler's Ruffle Neck Dress

I'm really pleased to be sharing this make with you today because I'm super happy with it. It's the second project that I completed as part of the recent KCW upcycling sewing challenge. Warning: this is quite an image-dense post. I got some real cuties of my little girl modelling this make whilst going about her business. Consider yourself warned!

Pattern:

After the success of my men's shirt to baby blouse refashion, I knew I had to crack out that pattern again at some point. It was such a great little basic pattern with lovely proportions, and by reusing a shirt and incorporating the button stand, most of the hard work was already done for you!

I used the baby blouse pattern from the Sept 2013 edition of Burdastyle magazine (pictured above). I traced the next size up from the last time I used this pattern, so this is the Size 80. I then lengthened and flared out the hem to make an A-line dress shape and omitted the sleeves. 

To finish the armholes I simply used my overlocker to neaten the raw edge, folded it over then top stitched it down. I did that after the shoulder seams had been sewn but before the side seams as I worried about the overlocker going round such a tight circle and accidentally hacking off a chunk of fabric! Inspired by this picture I found via Pinterest, I decided to extend the ruffle to make it more of a feature. 

Fabric:

I have a few lovely thrifted men's shirts in my stash that I was saving to make into blouses for myself. This one was probably going to be some kind of diner waitress-esque type affair. But it hasn't happened and the longer I leave it, the less likely I am to actually wear a candy-striped diner waitress blouse in my day-to-day life! So I decided to give up on that dream (for now...) and use it for a different project that will hopefully get used lots and lots. 

The shirt itself was in pretty good nick. There's a bit of fading from going through the wash a lot, but not much else up with it. Despite the wide white stripes between the coral ones, the fabric is pretty much opaque so I felt it's appropriate for summer wear when she might not wear anything other than a nappy underneath when it's really hot. 

It wasn't all plain sailing (sorry, more nautical puns) when using this shirt though. No part of the shirt was wide enough to cut the ruffle in one piece. I cut the ruffle length in three parts and joined them up by carefully matching up the stripes. Hopefully the joins are fairly unnoticeable. 

Refashion:

Aside from the fabric of the garment, I also reused the button stand to form the fastening on the back of the dress. The original shirt's pocket had a cute little embroidered boat, which obviously I was going to incorporate into the end result come hell or high water! 

Usually when I'm refashioning a shirt into a new garment, I try to reuse the existing hem. However this shirt's wasn't great as it kept rolling up, so I decided to avoid it and cut and hem the dress as usual. I think this has helped give the whole garment a nice, clean finish and makes more sense with the A-line silhouette. 

Thoughts: 

Ahh! I love this dress! There is a distinct possibility that some may think she's dressed as a clown, but I think that's a look that Dolores could rock: Nautical Clown! I'm really pleased with how the stripes have lined up at the side seams, and I am pleased to prove to refashioning-phobes that sewing something from an existing garment can still result in a neat and crisp looking garment!

Currently it is a bit big for her (she still fits into the original blouse which was Size 74) but that's fine. It is intended to be worn in the height of summer, which may still be five or so months away! In the meantime, I will probably try and get more use from it by layering it over other clothes, more or less like she is wearing it in these pics.