Sewing for Kindergarten 2015, Day 1

Hello, and a big ginormous welcome to day 1 of my annual series Sewing for Kindergarten.

This is the serie's third year and the concept is the same: Sewing bloggers who has kids starting in Kindergarten* this year sews some fun and school appropriate clothes or accessories while they sprinkle their post with a little bit information about how they and their Kindergartner feel about this big, exciting and maybe slightly scary change in life.

*Which in my definition means first year of mandatory school although I know that is a bit of a grey zone and rules and traditions are different from state to state and country to country.

See the complete line up of amazing ladies in the end of this post. You will for sure be as excited as I am when you see who I have snatched up for the next two weeks.

Let's get started with the first participant who is Carla from Small & Friendly.

Small & Friendly is not just a sewing blog, I guess you can call it a lifestyle blog. You can find posts about her latest vacation spot, homemade baby food and the cutest DIY's. I absolutely love her style and I'm sure you will too. I 'met' Carla when we both contributed to Stylo Magazine's 4th and latest edition. Carla showed us how to create your own fantastic fabric. See that post HERE.

For her post for this series she has made a blanket and pillow tutorial. Her son choose the wolf fabric and I'm sure he will feel well protected during rest time in Kindergarten.

Go see the post and tutorial HERE. 

Thank you Carla!

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The second participant is....yeah, that me, ha.

My youngest daughter started in year-round school with a dresscode this July and I have basically sewn school clothes since June. 

I'm showing you four of those outfits is my post which I choose to make separate from this introduction post.

See my post HERE.

Sewing for Kindergarten 2015

Since I also have a kindergartner this year and therefor is participating in the series myself, I decided to split up my participating post from the introduction post (which you can find HERE). I hope that makes sense.

So this year it was littlesister E's turn to start Kindergarten and she was very excited for this new adventure because whatever big sister is doing she naturally wants to do too. 

She started in preschool 2 times a week when she was 18 months old and the last year she went in 5 days a week from 9-1pm. Her preschool did a great job preparing her for what to come in Kindergarten so I didn't feel like this was a GIANT change for her, but a change for sure! Her school day certainly got a whole lot longer (school starts at 7:40 am (zzzz) and ends at 2:50 pm. Homework was another change. And bigger expectations over all. One of the best changes was of course the fact that both our girls are now in the same school. Everyone - especially the driver (me!) - loves to only have one destination and one carpool to sit in each morning and afternoon.

All participants will answer these questions in their post and here are my answers.

- Is this your first time sending a child to Kindergarten? If not what number child is this?

Nope, my second and last. Big sister W started 2 years ago and is now in 2nd grade.

- Do you feel like crying or celebrating?

- And what about your child?

Celebrating! She was excited which made me excited. The school urged us to use the carpool from day one and she jumped out without even saying goodbye, ha.

We are in a year-round calendar school so the year started in mid July and we are one week away from our first 3 week track out and reality has certainly hit now. She still jumps out happy from the car but I get lots of hugs and kisses first and she has definitely tried to pretend to be ill a few times to be able to sleep a bit longer in the morning (and then of course waking up super early on the weekends where she could sleep in, gah).

- What kind of school does your child attend? (public, charter, private, homeschool)

We have changed from public to private school this year. We were not unhappy with our previous school but we are very very happy with the new one.

- Question to your kindergartner: What has been the best and worst part so far?
E: Best part: recess. Worst part: homework.
(Hehe, surprise surprise.)

Our school has a dresscode and I have a permanent bookmark to that page on my computer, haha. I have always loooved sewing school clothes for my kids because stylish but comfortable and practical everyday clothes is my favorite thing to make. So I decided to grab the challenge, embrace the restrictions and get the best out of the new situation. I have been sewing school clothes on and off since June, some I have shown you on FB and IG and some I have saved for this post.

The general gist about our dresscode is this:

Dress pants and shorts, knee length skirts and jumpers (sleeve- and collar-less dress). Woven materials only. Solid colors in navy or khaki. Which in my world means just navy, ahem. I'm sorry I'm just not a khaki fan unless we are talking a Burberry Trenchcoat, bahaha.

Polostyle shirts and dresses only. Cardigans, fleeces and sweatshirts. No hoodies. Solid colors red, navy or light blue.

There are of course more details but these are the things I can sew and I feel like I have quite a lot of possibilities. 

Finding fabric have been the most fun. When you are forced to sew only with solid colors then texture, quality and drape matters extra much and I have found some great apparel fabrics I would otherwise never have ordered. I will tell you more about them during the post under each item.

Here we are with the first outfit. A store-bought polo (they are required under jumpers) and a navy jumper. This is pattern 'm' from the Japanese sewing book Girly Style Wardrobe by Yoshiko Tsukiori. The sleeve 'wings' are a very popular details with this little lady and has already been worn twice this last week after the dress made it into her closet.

The fabric is me re-discovering cotton gauze. Double gauze gets all the attention these days but if you are looking for some more drape, gauze is your friend. Yes, it is a tiny bit see-through but since she will always have a polo plus knit play shorts or tights under it is not a problem. It's really perfect for garments with lots of gathers. 

The yoke with the square neckline is made with what I think is Belvedere Cotton. 
The reason why I'm not sure is simply because I have ordered so much different navy fabric and yes, I did save the order summeries BUT it was only after awhile that I realized that it would have been smart to cut out tiny samples and attach to the order so re-ordering favorites (like this one) was easier. Now I have a list of 10 navy fabrics to choose from, gah. I can of course exclude some that I know is not this one but yeah, I'm fairly sure this is Belvedere cotton. It looks like sateen but with a shirt fabric's weight and drape. I also made THIS school jumper dress for big sister in this fabric.

I made my yoke double layered instead of following the pattern's suggestion with a neckline facing on the inside. It makes cutting easier and it certainly makes the inside much more beautiful with hidden seams all over.

The next jumper is a remix of The Antalya Dress by Coffee & Threads Patterns.
I didn't do massive changes. I curved the neckline more so there was room for the polo shirts' collar under and then I cut away the cap sleeves to make it sleeveless. Boom, you got a jumper.

I added seam allowance to the back bodice piece and put in an invisible zipper in as opening.  The fabric is Cambridge Cotton Lawn from Kaufman. The quality is amazing like any other Kaufman fabrics although an overall ironing before the photo shoot would probably have been beneficial to the overall look, haha.

Big sister was a helper on this shoot and she was standing behind me suggesting poses to her. I'm guessing this is one of them, haha.

And a quick tip for drafting sleeveless dresses. Remember to make the sleeve opening a tad deeper than you normally would if you plan on it being worn with shirts or tees under it. I know that is super logic but I thought I would mention it anyway.

Oh, and I also drafted a full facing to finish neckline and armscye.

If you want to see my version of the original dress and read the review THIS is the post for you. (It's a good one, you really should.)

Next up is a 3 piece all handmade outfit.
The Goodall Cardigan which is a free* and brand new slouchy cardigan pattern from Petit a Petit Patterns. 
*Join Celina's FB pattern group to receive it for free.
The Rowan Tee turned polo from Titchy Threads. 
And a skirt with big pleats and an elastic waist (pattern #19) from the Japanese book A Sunny Spot - Girl's Simple Clothes.

I have always said that there was no way I was ever sewing polos - especially because you can buy them in okay qualities for not a lot of money....so honestly I'm not quite sure why I decided to do it anyway. I guess it was the pressure of my own sewing series or something, hehe.

I decided to start with my favorite kids tee pattern The Rowan Tee because then I knew I didn't have to worry about getting the fit right too. Since The Rowan Tee is drafted for a hoodie or knit rib in the neck opening I knew I had to make the neck opening smaller for my collar and a classic polo look. I added 1 cm / 3/8" all around the neck opening and that was it. I drafted the collar and added a classic button placket...which I got the math wrong on and cut the slit too deep and a landslide of problems happened. BUT I do have a tutorial for one with the right math...maybe I should have consulted it too, haha. Find it HERE.

I also learned someting else while making this. I wanted to cover the seam where the collar is sewn to the neck opening and I thought I had seen it done with narrow grosgrain ribbon sooooo that's what I did. Except it didn't work because the neckline was too curved and the grosgrain ribbon obviously does not stretch. So I had to rip that out and put in bias tape. Lesson learned! And I'm sorry I didn't think of taking any photos of it for you but you can just spot a hint of neon orange in the neck opening.

The fabric is another from Kaufman. A cotton denim jersey knit Indigo. It is not very stretchy which makes it quite perfect for all the stitching you have to do when you make a polo (collar and button placket can obviously only be sewn on your sewing machine not the serger.) The original type of fabric for polos is called pique. Apparently it comes in all types of textures but THIS one is the one I would consider 'classic' polo pique.

HERE is the link to my post about the original Rowan Tee.

The cardigan has the most amazing slouchy look and it is such a fun and easy project...made even more fun with my Janome cover stitch, whoop. I was helping with the testing of the pattern and we realized during the process (but after I made this one) that if you use knit with stretch (and this fabric has quite a lot) you should size down. I made size 5 and it is big but not so she can't use it right away. I kind of love it like this but now you know if you like cardigans to be a bit more 'fitted'. 

It is made with my new favorite type of fabric. It is French terry made from bamboo rayon and cotton, it is thinner than normal French terry, stretchy, has amazing drape and it comes in a lot of great colors. How is that for a winner fabric! 

And regarding colors I have a little epilogue to the faith of this cardigan because as you know my kids are not allowed to wear the clothes I have made them before it has been photographed (if I'm choosing to blog it...which I usually am) SO big sister W wore it to school a few days after this photo shoot (it kind of fits her as a 3/4 sleeve length summer cardigan, ha) and was told that the color red was not the school appropriate one (it's too light)- waaaah. And the most stupid thing is that this fabric also comes in the perfect red, I even bought that too (it's sold out now) but I just choose this lighter red because I liked it better, ugh. That will teach me to try to bend the rules for fashion, haha.

SO I have bought some fabric color and see if I can get it darkened up at bit. That should work.

The skirt is one of those example why I love Japanese patterns so much. Simple and yet with a perfect detail. At first glance it might look just like an elastic waist skirt but it actually have big pleats. And I learned something new - something very very logic but never the less would I not have thought of it myself I think. They placed the pleats with a little distance so that when I pulled the elastic through and gathered the waist the pleats got pushed together and are now placed right next to each other. Genius!

The fabric is a linen and cotton blend which I'm slowly warming up to. I have never really been a linen fan but I must admit that it is quite perfect for this type of school clothes. It's Kaufman again again.... Essex Linen Blend. It comes in 46 colors and prints and I'm linking to the full collection.

And last but not least a more structured jumper. The pattern is the not yet released Miss Polly Pinafore pattern from Sewpony.
When I saw the preview of the pattern I just knew it would be perfect for school so Suz was generous enough to send it to me so I could sew it for this post even though it's not done yet. Thank you so much Suz!

I'm sad that the dress looks so big on E in these photos because it really looks good in real life. I made it a little bit big so there is room for the growing kindergartner but it's not too big.
Another thing that makes it look bigger than it is, is my fabric choice. It's made with a cotton twill which is a rather stiff fabric type.

I almost skipped the piping because I feel like I have had nothing but trouble with piping lately. But I decided to give piping another chance and I'm glad I did because the sewing went so well and I actually sewed the whole thing in one go. It's rare that I start and finish a garment in one go, so that is a compliment to Suz's pattern pieces since everything went together perfectly.

I love those shoulder flap details. I obviously had to make this in solid navy blue but I'm dying to have fun with some color blocking and/or prints. This pattern is screaming for it. But first I have to make another navy blue one because big sister has asked for one too.

Okay, we made it through. That was a lot of school clothes.

I hope you are inspired.

Dont forget to check out the other participant today Carla from Small & Friendly HERE. 

Thank you!

The Alice Dress by Tessuti

Holy moly...it's me on the blog again. Ugh, Gah and Argh. Okay, now that that is out of the way let's talk about the dress....and the fabric (insert a million emoji heart eyes!).

The dress is the Alice Dress/Top from the Australian fabric shop and now pattern maker Tessuti Fabrics. I fell in love with this pattern when I, as so many others, fell over THIS version on Pinterest. It's the stripy one I'm obsessed with but really all three versions in their intro post are perfection. The styling too!

The fabric, oh the fabric is two different qualities in the same print. The yoke and armhole bands are cotton voile and the bodice is knit. The print is designed by Leah Duncan for Art Gallery fabrics. It's part of the collection Morning Walk and the print is called Limestone Feel Indigo (no wonder I'm always confused about naming fabrics, ha). I immediately feel in love with it when I saw it.....although more when I saw it in real life than in these photos, ha. Dang, why are prints so hard to photograph!? Oh well, it could be worse. Let's move on!

This dress ended up borderline nightgown but that is solely my fault for combining this style of dress with that print. That was of course not the look I was going for but hey.....beeeep happens, ha. And I'm certainly not not going to wear it for that reason.
It is ultra comfortable and I feel great wearing it. And a belt always helps too.

I usually always make a muslin when I'm sewing new patterns for myself (for obvious reasons) and I definitely always sew a muslin when the real thing is going to be made with precious and rather pricey fabric (the quality is extremely nice too so don't worry it is more than worth it).
And I'm so glad I did. I made my muslin in a size S and ended up taking so much off in the width (only) that the final size is a size XXS in width and size S in length (and I probably added some extra length to the skirt hem but honestly I can't remember at this time).
Let me just say that is certainly the first time I'm wearing anything in a size XXS. In other words the pattern runs big. I'm even going to say it runs very big. I might not have a giant upper body (which is totally the size determinator for this style) and I certainly do not have a giant chest but there are still LOTS of women that are smaller than me. (I'm 178 cm /5'10" and have broad shoulders). So the fact that I need the smallest size that the pattern offer is a bit worrying. But hey, it's not the end of the world. It's quite easy to adjust. I adjusted mine by removing fabric from center front and back. This means you don't have to mess with the armhole bands etc. Removing width from the center though will make the neck opening smaller so remember to adjust that afterwards by simply curving it more.
I will also add that a smaller person than me might look better in a more loose version than what I do and in that case problem solved, yay.

Besides the width did I change one more thing to the pattern. The armhole bands are constructed to be loose and a bit like 'wings' but I didn't wanted mine to be loose under my arms only sort of from front yoke to back yoke. So I 'pinched' in the armhole band pattern piece in the curve under the arm both front and back and took off just about 2 cm / 3/4" with the slash and gather method. 

Here is a photo of the muslin and how I 'pinched' it.
This is not me saying there is anything wrong with the pattern in this area. We are all build differently and it is completely impossible to make one pattern that fits us all. It is expected to make adjustments to adult patterns. Another thing is fit preferences (just like with the sizing issue from earlier) some look great in loose styles and others, like me, needs it a bit more structured to look and feel the best.
SO if you are making the Alice Top/Dress and feel like making the armhole band less wide under your arm, well this is how you do it. 

There was one thing with that pattern that I found strange though and that was the big variety of seam allowances (SA). It is totally fine/correct to have a smaller SA on e.g. curved seams (to leave it all the same and have the sewer cut it off afterwards is fine too since we are not talking patterns sent to a production place. They don't have time for stuff like that, ha.) so that is not the strange part. 

The strange part is that this pattern uses 3 different SAs while sewing seams together (so I'm not counting hem SA which usually is different altogether). There are some seams with 1/2", some with 3/8" and then some with 1/4" and that is not very user friendly in my personal opinion. The front and back yokes ends up with all 3 SAs, yikes. Neckline 1/4", armscye (for armhole bands) 3/8" and shoulder and bottom seam 1/2". Oh well, again not a big thing but it does take away from the overall sewing experience.

There was also a positive thing about the SA on this pattern. The paper pattern itself had SA indications on it. That was definitely helpful.

And can I send out a request to all pdf-pattern makers. It's just a personal request. Please take it as a suggestion and not a critique.

You know how most pdf patterns have general info in the beginning and that usually includes seam allowance. It usually goes like this: "This pattern has X seam allowance unless otherwise noted in the tutorial." Which means now I have to read through the whole tutorial to make sure I'm not missing that the neckline has a smaller SA etc.

Oh, I SO wish all the exceptions from the pattern's general SA was ALSO mentioned in that general info in the beginning. Sometimes that is all the info I need to sew the garment. But it is info that you just need to know to be able to sew the garment correctly, get seams to match up and get the right size out of it, ha.

Thanks in advance!

Another thing that added to the positive vibes of the sewing experience was notches. And not only notches but useful and correct placed notches that helped with the sewing process. Where seams meet up, in tricky curved seams or where to stop the gatherings. Ah, thank you!

Since the bodice is loose it didn't make a difference that I used knit instead of woven so no need to adjust/downsize those pattern pieces. And my coverstitch took care of the hemming beautifully, yay.

I skipped the side pockets of pure laziness. Yup, there you have it. 

And I have a tip if you are planning to make this dress but haven't bought/printed the pattern yet.

The top used the same bodice pattern piece for both front and back but the dress version has two different ones. This makes me happy because it shows that they have been doing some fittings and realized that the fit is better in the dress if there is less gathering in the back piece. But it also means lots of printing and taping because those bodice pattern pieces are obviously big even though they are cut on fold. SO I did some measuring (after printing and taping it all together) and you can simply use the front dress bodice pattern piece for the back dress bodice piece too BUT you have to fold away 5 cm / 2" at the center fold line (so it will in total become 10 cm / 4" smaller than the front bodice dress piece).

Saving a little paper and ink (and time) here and there is also worth something, right.

Besides from a few details here and there is it a great pattern and the result is obviously great. I sewed my dress a bit different than what the tutorial recommends, hiding seams in between the yoke and overall making it pretty on the inside too. I won't go into that further in this post because I feel like I have already been babbling more than enough. I have plans of making many more Alices though so maybe next time.

Thank you for your patience if you made it down here and are still reading, ha.

Get your own Alice Dress/Top Pattern HERE.

Ethereal Dress by Figgy's Patterns

With this post I'm finally through the piles of clothes that happened as a result of a sudden sewing surge I had in the end of spring. Clothes were hanging and laying everywhere in my sewing room and it feels good to have gotten it all out and into the girls' closets.

Today I'm talking about the Ethereal dress by Figgy's Patterns.

I never meant to make them matching dresses. 

Let me tell you what happened....

But first let this post be a great example to why I usually insist on photographing the clothes before they get to wear it. After the first wash the clothes just loose that crispy look that they have when they are fresh from the sewing machine. I always prewash my new fabrics before washing them and that takes a tiny bit of the crispness but not too bad. The first wash after sewing though...that's another story.

The dress to the left (above photo) has been washed and ironed again. The one to the right has not been washed yet at this point. It's quite easy to see the difference between the two dresses. Oh well, whatever. I just felt the need to point it out, ha.

So why the matching dresses and why has one already been worn?

I have sewed quite a few Figgy's Patterns lately and little sister E has been a size 4/5 in all of them. So that was of course the size I made for her when I decided to make her an Ethereal Dress. I tried it on her before hemming to determine length (which I had added) and it was WAY too big. Too big to the point where it didn't work. SO that dress moved on to big sister W (who is 7 years old and pretty average height and weight though to the long and slim side) and the dress fit her perfect...except for length which I fixed by adding the contrast double folded cut on bias piece of fabric (can you tell I'm not quite sure what the correct technical term is, haha).

Little sister E was of course not happy with loosing a dress that was originally for her so I promised to make her a new one in a smaller size. Luckily it's a fast and fun sew.

And right around that time we got a note from preschool asking us to dress the kiddos in red, white and blue for the upcoming preschool graduation and DING...the rest is history.

The graduation dress was finished last minute and there was no time for photo shoots before graduation and that's how the washing before blogging disaster happened, hehe (too dramatic? okay okay!).

SO besides being WAY too big in sizing it's a great pattern. I did found one more mistake though (by checking the paper pattern - see previous post HERE if you want to read about the advantages of doing that). To me it seems that the front asymmetrical flounce is a bit too big. In this case you have to use your measuring tape, turn it sideways and measure the sewing line (not the outer edge) on both the bodice's and the flounce's neckline. They do not have the same shape since it is the curve of the flounce's neckline that creates the flowy shape and you can't just put them on top of each other to compare.

SO I measured and I measured and then I measured again and to me it looks like the flounce is a total of 2 cm too long (from one shoulder seam to the other). Then I measured the front armscye of the bodice and the flounce (which is sewed into the left armscye only) and here it seemed like the flounce's armscye was 1 cm too long.

A very quick fix to all this was to remove 1 cm (3/8") from both of the flounce's shoulder seams. Just like if you had to remove seam allowance from the shoulder seams. 

I hope I'm making sense without photos?!

When that was done it all went together perfectly.

For some unknown reason I decided to make the back closures different. Honestly I barely remember doing it, ha. I noticed it when I took the photos.

The left one with the button and slit is the suggestion from the pattern and the right one has an invisible zipper. I guess I'm just showing you options here...or I'm loosing my mind. Take your pick, ha.

The light blue fabric is tencel chambray from Robert Kaufman and the red dot flounce is made from Nani Iro Kokka Pocho. The neon orange dot flounce is quilting cotton from Michael Miller. I googled around and I think THIS is it even though it does not look like neon on the website at all(??).

And yeah I just had to make a collage of all those faces. Little sister always has to go one step further...it's sort of in her dna I think, ha.

Get your own Ethereal Dress pattern HERE.

Thank you!

Dear Prudence Dress by Sew Pony

I love clothes with fun details and the Dear Prudence Dress from Sew Pony is exactly one of those.

The shirring in the center front neckline is such a beautiful detail and a fun one to sew.

It was one of those details where I had to consult the pattern's tutorial to see how she did it and when I realized she put elastic in the very top row I sent Suz a virtual high five. Genius!

If you follow my Instagram you already know that this was W's Fourth of July dress this year. I do not normally sew patriotic dresses for them but little sister E had one that I made for her preschool graduation in May and so of course big sister felt entitled to get one too. And since I really want them to feel that it is an advantage for them that Mommy sews, I felt this was a request I wanted to fulfill. Of course with the small payment of blog photos, ahem.

The two fabrics are a stripy cotton shirt poplin. And a cream double gauze with red dots from Nani Iro Kokka Pocho. To my delight (and my credit card's horror) did I realize while writing this post that Miss Matatabi still carries it in her Easy shop HERE.

I changed a few things on the pattern. I changed the shape of the pockets from square to curved. I felt that went better with the rounded collar (and yes, I'm probably way overthinking it, haha). And then I changed the lining a bit. I basically changed it into a facing instead by shorten it. The whole upper bodice is lined and that is overall a great idea. Except if you live a place where July is burning hot like we do. Suz very cleverly uses the bottom of the back lining to create a casing for the elastic, so I had to find another solution for that feature.

Since the dress already had shirring elsewhere is was an obvious choice to add a couple of rows of shirring instead. When using shirring instead of a measured piece of elastic you loose a bit of the control regarding the width of the back. It all depends on fabric, numbers of rows of shirring, the machine's tension and techniques used. My shirring might be the reason for the front skirt to pull towards the back side like you can see on the photo above but it's not a big deal to me.

And sometimes I really wish I followed my own advice! If someone asked me if it is clever to sew rows of shirring on a back waistline in a straight line, I would have said nope. Since the waist is shaped somewhat as a cylinder you really need a curved line for it to appear horizontal/straight. What happens if you do a straight line, you may ask? Well, look at the photo above, ha.

What I should have done was to put the dress on the child and then put a few guiding pins in what appears to be a straight/horizontal line and then sewed my shirring after those pins. OH WELL...there is always next time!

The collar is perfectly drafted and drapes SO well! I will always recommend to make your inner collar a tiny bit smaller than the outer layer. I have a trick somewhere in THIS post that makes it all super easy. 

I wish the collar had notches though to help placing it on the neckline where it meet the shoulder seams and where it stops (and the shirring starts) at the front. It just makes the sewing process more smooth and it helps eliminate mistakes.

Oh boy, this dress is just so freaking cute!

There is one thing I think I will change with the next one I make and that is the width of the front bodice's waist - although I first have to look into if the problem is my back waist shirring being too gathered. But on W there was just a bit too much fabric when the dress hung freely on her. It could be easily fixed by gather the bottom of the front bodice a bit and then gather the front skirt a bit more than it already is. I'll have to experiment, ha.

I also want to add that I have a habit of checking the paper pattern before I even touch my fabric and I cannot recommend this enough for several reasons.

One reason is the obvious which is to check if the seams matches up. You can never trust seams when they are cut in fabric because they can stretch or the fabric has shifted a bit while cutting. But the paper never lies (if it is printed and taped together correctly of course, ha). 

And yes, on my list of posts-I-will-probably-never-get-done is certainly How to Check a Paper Pattern. Gah!

Another reason is that it helps you understand what you are about to sew. You can't check a paper pattern if you do not know which parts go together. So you might spend 5-10 minutes checking paper pattern pieces but you will gain that time or maybe more in sewing time because you know what goes together now. And when you get more experienced it will also help you with the order of the sewing process. I know you have the tutorial from the pattern but again, the less you have to consult that, the more time for sewing.....and maybe you will start feeling more courageous about finishes etc. Who knows where it can leads when you start checking paper patterns haha.

Lastly it will help you with your general understanding of patterns and how they go together.

I originally wrote the above because I found a small mistake in the length of the front and back side seams but it is all fixed now! Phew, for pdf patterns that you can fix, update and send out a new version.

Going cross-eyed is a new feature in this 7 year old's facial expression vocabulary so naturally we needed that in the post too.

So the conclusion is a GREAT dress which will work all year round since it comes with 3/4 length set-in sleeves too. I could totally imagine this dress in a thin lovely wool and fully lined of course. Oh my head is already spinning. I love the cap sleeves for warmer weather.

Suz has her Dear Prudence tour going on at the moment and soooo many amazing dresses are popping up over there. Check it out yourself HERE.

Get your own Dear Prudence Dress HERE.

Thank you! And ehhh happy belated Fourth of July to my American readers!