Pattern Description: sundress for little girls, sizes 2-8. This is an easy A-line dress with tie-straps (cut on the bias) and a small yoke.
Pattern Sizing:2-8, girls.
Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?Yes, and I will post pics sometime tomorrow when the hubs gets back from his travels with the camera. Should be tomorrow evening.
Were the instructions easy to follow? YES!This is a great first pattern or a great first download pattern. There are few pieces, and the base piece, the dress body, is large but still contained on few pieces, so learning to line up the print outs is fairly simply and easy. You can even simplify it more by using purchased bias binding/ tape for the sleeve/strap pieces and not cutting them out of the fabric. She also gives suggestions for trims like ricrac or lace at teh bottom of the yoke or French seams. This worked great for me, as I used some lace from the Skirt of Destruction to accent the yoke. Here's that lace from the evil skirt.
What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern? Well, it is FREE, so even if I didn't like it (and I DID like it), I couldn't really complain. It is such a great pattern to practice the whole schtick of the download pattern with-- easy pieces, simply shapes, few pieces. So even if you do dislike it, there are few pieces and little ink and no purcahse price to say you wasted money. Seriously, I used more ink and paper on just the definitions section of my dissertation. Each chapter is far FAR more than this FREE pattern. Did I mention this free? It makes a cute dress or even jumper over a long sleeved onesie in the winter.
Fabric Used: lovely quilting cotton from equilter.com. I had actually bought it a few years ago to make a home dec piece for a friend's wedding, which never happened. The whole story of THAT is quite bizarre and assinine. If you ever stop by, you can have some homebrew in the basement and hear the story of the ill-begotten wedding that stirred me to buy the blue fabric with some variegation and a silver shimmer scattered on it.
Pattern alterations or any design changes you made:none-- I cut a 3. I followed the instructions including the suggestion for the lace inclusion at the yoke. I guess the one change I made was to incorporate some embroidery at the hem. I was inspired by this dress from Erdem and used this pattern to make it. I added some lace at the yoke, with a touch of embroidery there too, and some embroidery at the hem. I used urbanthreads.com embroideries for my effects and variegated threads for some designs to capture some lightness and irradescense.
Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?Yes! I already have a dress planned for a friend's daughter's birthday coming soon. It is so easy and FREE. This is a great pattern to experiment with for little girl's dresses and to see if you like download and print patterns. Did I mention it is FREE? Your investment to see if you can deal with a print and tape pattern is minimal. Seriously, I put more ink and paper into just the notes of my dissertation than this pattern. And because it is FREE, there is almost no cost to you-- just a bit of ink and a few sheets of paper.
Conclusion: If you haven't downloaded it yet, you don't have little girls to sew for-- your own or friend's/family's. This is such a simple design, and timeless and ageless, it could be easily sized up or down for younger or older girls too. I will amend to match the photos and post pics tomorrow when the camera returns.
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