Free Pattern! The Other Birthday Dress

I showed off "the other birthday dress" in this post. I realised that since I'd already drafted a size 10/12 child's large pattern I might as well share it. And since I was going to share it I might as well make a mini tutorial on how to sew it.

Mind you I took no pictures of the process so all I have is drawings but if you have any knowledge of sewing it should be pretty clear.

If you would like to sew the dress using the same fabric, it is available in my Spoonflower shop here:

Party Animal Fabric 

 The fabric is designed to repeat perfectly on one yard of Modern Jersey. Other knits choices will work you will end up with less of the tossed print part of the fabric though.

You will need:
General Sewing Supplies-thread, pins, sewing machine, scissors etc.
Pattern available here-Party Animal Raglan
Less than 1 yard of knit fabric with 25% stretch and good recovery.

To begin download and print out the pattern pieces. You want to choose 100% or No Scaling or uncheck the Fit to Page box on your printer.
Trim and tape the pages following the diagram and then cut out the two pattern pieces.

Cut out two sleeves on the fold and two bodices on the fold. You will also need on strip of fabric 2x20 and one square of fabric 2x2 for the neckband.

I own a serger but at the moment it is being incredibly uncooperative so I sewed the entire dress using a narrow and long zig zag stitch. You can serge or twin needle it if you prefer.

Step one:

With right sides together sew the sleeves to one bodice piece
along the shoulder seams.















Step two:
With right sides together sew the sleeve to the other bodice half along the shoulder seam.
Repeat on the other side.Turn to right side and topstitch your seams if you desire.

Step three:

Turn dress inside out and match up the sleeves and bottom hem. Sew the side seams from sleeve hem to bottom hem on both sides, You can turn the dress right side out and topstitch if you desire. 

Step four:
To make neckband sew strip together to form a loop, fold loop in half lengthwise concealing the stitches to the inside.

Fold knot piece in half and stitch along cut edge. Turn tube so seam is on the inside.

 

Step five: 

Pin the knot piece onto the center sleeve portion of the neckline and baste in place. Center the seam of the neckband over the knot piece and pin evenly around the neckline. Fold the knot piece up to cover the seam and stitch the neckband to the neckline. Turn to right side and topstch in place.

 

Step six:

Hem sleeves and bottom edge of dress (I used a lettuce edge on the bottom)

See ya' later alligator.

The legaleze: I believe when you give you should give with both hands. What that means for you. If you want to share the file it would be nice if you sent people here to get it but you don't have to. If you want to change the file, change it. If you want to sell dozens or hundreds of size 10/12 raglan dresses be my guest. Enjoy!

Ruffle Fabric Love

 It's been awhile but I made a commitment to not sew until the house was in order. After Mom died the house didn't just get away from me, it ran screaming wildly down the road and into the next state (maybe two states)
 I fully plan on doing a walk of shame/proud of my accomplishments post with before and after pictures of just how bad the den/computer/dining/craft/sewing room was when it's finally done but that is for another day. And although the den is not yet where it needs to be we've made HUGE headway. So I took a small break from de-hoarding and sewed up two things.

 I won this incredibly beautiful ruffle knit fabric from Simple Simon and Co. (Along with an AMAZING haul of other gorgeous wonderstuff)   It's original intention was a Coastal Curtsy Skirt from No Big Dill. Although that is an absolutely darling idea, I don't sew from myself and as soon as I saw the fabric I knew it needed to be a tank dress with gold trim. (And probably several other things because there is a ton of it.)

 Then Wub started taking dance classes and I realised she really, really REALLY needed a pair of ruffle shorts for dance class.

 So I folded about nine inches over on one side of the fabric and carefully pinned it in place making sure to keep the ruffles falling in one direction. Then I downloaded and printed off The Girls Knit Tank Top Pattern sizes 3-8 and FREE) from Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom. I used size 6 which was pretty roomy on Wub who's a RTW 7. I lowered the neckline slightly by following the size 4 neck curves. I also added 5 inches to the bottom to make it dress length.

 Then I found a pair of leggings and traced them to make the pattern for the shorts.  

 I was actually making these simultaneously can you guess?

 I was trying to be as careful as possible with the cutting and pinning because I didn't want to cut away bits of ruffle in awkward places. I was also really cautious with pattern placement because I wanted the ruffles to line up really well.

  The shorts were super easy. I matched sewed the seat and front seams first using a zizag then matched and sewed the inseam. One thing did do was pull a little bit of the cut ruffle out past the edge of the seam so when I sewed it together the raw edge would be on the inside. Because the fabric has such good recovery I didn't bother with a waistband at all. I may regret this after dance class next week but if I do I'll add one then.

 For the dress I followed the directions in the tutorial just making extra sure to pin the ruffles down in the right direction. It turned out super cute. She's going to wear it to a bridal shower tomorrow. Can't wait to show it off for real.

 And the "scarf" is just the leftover strip of fabric from the edge. I still have so much fabric leftover i could make her several skirts or dresses. I'm thinking about trying to dye some of it because even though I love the palest pink color of it, how many antique pink dresses/tops/skirts etc. does one girl need?

 So back to sorting, pitching and donating *sigh* but it was lovely while it lasted...

The Maggie May Dress from Shwin & Shwin

 I have to be honest I wasn't 100% sure  I liked the Maggie May Tunic/Dress when I bought the pattern. I was very on the fence. Mostly because I wasn't sure I could come up with a fabric combo I would really love.

 But there was something about the pleats that whispered to me. I know, I know but I HATE gathering stuff. It's so fiddly. Frustrates me. And ever since I made myself a pleat flipper from a Jenga block, two bamboo skewers and some scotch tape I've chosen to pleat over gather whenever practical.

 There are only three pattern pieces to the Maggie May. Two multipurpose back and front pieces and a pocket. The rest is measured rectangles. So there wasn't a lot of tape this to that and line up this with that. Considering the last pattern I cut out and put together was the W Pants by Blank Slate Patterns (a fantastic pattern by the way) this was a welcome relief.

 The directions are wee bit sparse but a confident beginner could definitely figure them out. I mostly followed the directions except I put the pleats in the skirt before I sewed the skirt pieces together. One other thing I would change the next time I sew it. (And I will definitely sew it again because it looks a-mazing on Wub.) would be to attach the contrast band to the bottom before I sewed the skirt sides together.

  Because Wub is in a size that doesn't actually exist commercially I'm pretty careful to measure her before I sew something. I sewed the size six and it was spot on for sizing.

 I managed to get this sewed over three evenings. If that sounds like a long time, take into account we get home from work between 5:30 and 6:00. We cook and eat dinner, get Wub's lunch ready, do any homework she has, bathe and sometimes we pretend we care about housework. Also if I stay up past 10:00pm that's like 4:00 am in twenty year old time. So all told maybe three and a half hours. At least a half hour of that time was me picking out the same button hole four times because I kept bleeping it up.

  As for the fabric combo? I kinda feel like I knocked that one out of the park.

The linen is a fabric remnant I got at JoAnn's for maybe a dollar fifty. The floral is from a brand new (circa 1971) Canon Blossom Festival  full size sheet that I bought on Ebay. I think I paid $14 for it. I still have several yards of it left.

The back doesn't quite line up but I'm 98% sure this was a "user" error and not the pattern itself. 

 I let Wub pick out the buttons. She had the choice of deep clear green, pale yellow or these orange ones. Even though it meant a lot of buttonholes and button sewing. I think they are the perfect choice. 

You can't see it when it's all buttoned up but the second from the top buttonhole is the one I had to pick out four times. It's actually still slightly wonky but I was afraid I was going to damage te fabric if I picked out any more stitches.

And the pockets? Love them. They are perfectly sized and perfectly placed. If pockets hadn't been included I probably would have added them in a future version.

For all the wonderful and special details the Maggie May is a pretty easy sew. I will definitely be making a couple of few more.

I have quite a bit of the Blossom Festival in the pink colorway. I think it would be GORGEOUS and on trend with a navy blue top and bottom. Maybe in maxi length.

I also picture white, red piping, black maybe more red piping and black again.

I have to say I'm a weensie bit jealous of Wub. If my pattern making skills were a little stronger I'd attempt a grown up version. Oh well maybe they'll come up with a plus size version. I'd definitely buy that.

Did I mention the pleats?

And the pockets?

Yup, we love it and would absolutely recommend it.

I think it's going around...

Chloe singing: Oompa feber! I bet you're jumpin' around. Oompa feber! I bet you're jumpin' around.

(To the tune of Boogie Fever)

And if you haven't seen Despicable Me. Go. Now.

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