See & Sew

One day last week my daughter was really excited to sew a dress.  She picked out fabric from my stash and drew several designs, not understanding what a pattern actually was.   So, in the excitement of it all, we drove to Joanns to look through the pattern books and she picked out this pattern for her dress:

The front says “Yes!  It’s Easy” but sometimes I feel like the tissue paper kind of patterns are anything but.  Step 16 literally says, “Turn facing to inside, turning shoulder straps out; press.  Turn under ends of facing to clear zipper teeth SLIPSTITCH to zipper tape.”

Incomprehensible to me since I don’t really have any garment sewing experience.  But, I had about two hours to get the dress sewn.  So, what did I do???

I made it up!  Thank goodness I’ve been sewing long enough to know the rule to sew right sides together.  I just winged it and figured out a way to get the bodice lining sewn to the dress in a relatively unhaphazard way.  The dress looks great from a distance, and pretty good up close.  I omitted the zipper and put about 4 inches of elastic in the back instead.  The dress was done by 10pm and my daughter stayed up late for her “fittings” so I could adjust the elastic and situate the straps, and she happily modeled it for her dad who was mildly impressed.

We used coordinating Barbie fabric from Over the Rainbow.

Here is the back sans zipper.  I kind of like the elastic better, to tell you the truth, because she can get herself dressed without my help.

My first love is definitely quilting, but sewing the occasional dress is fun, especially if it means spending time with my daughter.