New Look: 6575 (Babies Lined Dresses and Headband) - Type:Kids(boys & girls)  | | Viewed 77 times
| 2 more reviews | Review rated Very Helpful by 5 people | | Reviewed by: | ryan's mom | 
| About ryan's mom | | PA USA | | Member since: 11/30/04 | | Reviews written: 117 | | Favored by: 43 people | | patterns reviewed: 102 | | Bio: more... |
| | Posted on: | 2/3/13 9:26 PM | | Project Photo: |  | | Pattern Photo: | 
New Look Pattern Info | | Pattern Rating: | Highly Recommend | | See other patterns in this category: Baby clothes | | | | Fabric: | Satin [See other projects in this fabric] | | Related Links | Click on  to add a link |
| Project Summary:
In March of 2012, my niece asked me to make a Baptismal dress for her daughter. Several years before she asked me to make an outfit for her older son from her wedding dress. The boy outfit didn't take a lot of fabric so I was very careful when cutting the dress to allow for a dress for a girl should the occasion present itself, which it did  . The Baptism was around the middle of June, and I think she was getting a little nervous because it was mid-May and I hadn't started the dress. However, first things first. PR Weekend NYC was already on my calendar so this project was scheduled to commence at the end of May.
I was a little nervous about size. My niece gave me the measurements, sent me the pattern, and I have never actually met my littlest niece (still haven't in fact) so I was concerned about the fit. My niece assured me everything would be okay lol.
So...I cut into the remainder of the dress, preserving as many of the original details as possible. The review is fairly specific in regard to those details, and in the end it turned out beautifully. My niece sent me pics of her daughter in the dress, and she looked lovely and the fit was perfect. Normally I would post pics, however, my niece prefers not to have pics of her children on the Internet so I will respect her wishes.
Pattern Description:
Several views of a toddler dress. I wish I had the pattern description, but I gave the pattern back to her.
Pattern Sizing:
Most likely standard children's sizing as per the New Look sizing block. I think I made this in something like a RTW 2T size.
Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?
Yes, it was very beautiful. I like mine better though .
Were the instructions easy to follow?
Super easy! Construction was very straightforward. I didn't always use the directions because of alterations like creating a princess-seamed bodice to work around available fabric. Also had to piece the back skirt pattern.
What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?
1. The pattern was so easy to put together.
2. Just a few pattern pieces to work with.
3. Produced a beautiful dress/great fit.
Major dislike: Working with ribbon on the bottom skirt portion of the dress. Believe me, if the pattern company stitched up this dress, they didn't work with the ribbon! It was a b**** to work with narrow, gathered ribbon and attaching it to the dress. Yuck.
Fabric Used:
Bridal satin and beaded/sequined lace from my niece's wedding dress. Also netting with and without lace from the wedding dress.
Pattern alterations or any design changes you made:
I made a few alterations and design changes.
First to deal with was the bodice. I marked princess lines on the front bodice piece separating them into two separate pieces. I lined up the CF piece with the CF of the wedding dress and used the original neckline seam. The tricky part was seam ripping the lace and beading to free it from the princess seam areas so it could be later stitched back down when the seams were sewn. Ditto with areas on the neckline.
Here is the preliminary work on the bodice:
Examining front of wedding dress to determine placement of pattern.
Showing CF of pattern matched to the CF of the dress.
Examining the dress back and will make attempt to preserve original neckline and incorporate the zipper into the baptismal dress.
Partially cut out back piece. Left the length on until I have to deal with the bottom part of the zipper and waistline seam.
Showing another pic of the back bodice on the dress piece.
My main goal for the bodice was to preserve as much of the wedding dress detailing as possible. If I could keep original necklines, it was going to be done. Bridal lace and beading would be kept with edges and beading seam ripped and reattached where necessary when assembling the dress. If I had to piece lace, it was going to happen.
Here is the mostly finished bodice front.
Here is the mostly finished bodice back.
Moving on to the dress skirt.
Here is the front skirt pattern piece matched to the wedding dress.
Now I encountered a problem! There was not enough fabric for the skirt back. So this is was I did--piecing to the rescue! I had to cut the back skirt piece into two separate pieces. I used the bridal dress fabric for the larger piece and the lining fabric for the smaller wedge.
This presented an issue that needed to be dealt with. Two different fabric types, a diagonal seam, well well well. Let's talk camoflauge! I decided to cut netting/lace from the sleeves and attach it to the wedge overlapping the diagonal seam. Here is a pic of working with the netting/lace in the wedge section. It ended up looking beautiful with a diagonal seam that was not noticeable. The netting/lace overlay camoflauged the fabric difference nicely too.
The next thing to do on the skirt was to use ribbon as a decorative detail as noted in the pattern pic. It required lots of grosgrain ribbon (either 3/4" or 1" width--can't remember). This was the only awful part of the dress construction. The ribbon had to be gathered, then stitched to the dress. I swear the pattern maker didn't complete the ribbon details. If he/she did, it would have been eliminated as a detail option lol. The ribbon kept curling in on itself and was horrible to stitch to the dress. I persevered and managed to get it on nicely. This was the only part of the baptismal dress (other than the bias tape) that wasn't from the original wedding dress. It wasn't a perfectly matched color (couldn't find one that was), but it was fine. Once that was done, I gathered the waistline seam of the skirt and stitched it to the bodice pieces.
Here is dress front with the ribbon detail.
Here is the dress back. Notice the skirt back with the wedge piece and lace overlay. It was very beautiful.
Next up was the hemline with gathered netting. My Babylock Imagine made very short work of gathering the long pieces of netting. Love that machine, and love the gathering foot which made this chore a piece of cake! Here is a pic of the bottom of the skirt with the ribbon detail and gathered netting attached to the hemline.
For the armhole edges, I attached bias tape, turned under, and topstitched the armholes. Ditto with areas on the neckline that weren't finished from the original neckline seam. I had to get a little creative doing this and it wasn't perfectly neat on the inside, but it look great from exterior of the dress. We sewers have to work with what we've got, don't we .
One issue I discovered during construction was that the back zip wasn't going to be large enough to fit over the body. I did add an extra side zip to the dress to give a wiggly toddler more wiggle room to get the dress on.
The last remaining task was to restitch all freestanding lace edges that were seamripped and reattach beads and sequins. A little time consuming, but so worth it.
Ah...finally finished! Here is the front of the dress again.
And here is the back.
Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?
I have no plans to sew this dress again. Except maybe for one of my grandchildren, but I have no plans on becoming a grandparent any time soon. And my kids better not have plans to make me one in the near future. ;)
Conclusion:
A great special occasion baby/toddler sized dress. It is something that can be successfully stitched up from Adv. Beginner status on up. Great directions, minimal number of pattern pieces, overall a very nice pattern from New Look.
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6 Comments
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Gorgeous, and how special!
2/4/13 0:11 AM
Just beautiful. :) A lifetime memory.
2/4/13 0:18 AM
wow, a real labour of love! your niece is very lucky to have you make such a pretty dress.
2/4/13 12:54 PM
The dress is beautiful! You are very talented to design & complete this wonderful garmet!
2/4/13 2:48 PM
Gorgeous!
2/4/13 2:52 PM
Beautiful dress!
2/7/13 1:22 PM