Baby dress in vintage cotton

This first real post is devoted to the dress I made for my daughter this spring. The pattern I used is baby dress #147 from Burda 09/2013. I made this dress in the exact same size once before as a present to my niece’s first birthday, using printed corduroy. This time I made a more summery version for my daughter with a piece of vintage cotton I found at the thrift store.

First picture on the blog! I did iron the dress, but somehow the photograph brings out all the wrinkles.

As usual, I bought this fabric scrap several years ago with no particular project in mind. Although the colours are not something I would wear myself, I could not resist the fabric, mostly because it has a different print on both sides: a small leaf print on one side and a diagonal plaid print on the other. It is unlike any other fabric I own and suspect that it might be quite old. It seems like it was a scrap that was left after someone had cut out an A-line skirt.

For the back closure I used mother-of-pearl buttons from my stash.

I used both sides of the fabric and added some contrasting blue rickrack trim to the yoke and the pockets. From a stash-busting perspective this was not as succesful as I imagined. When planning the project, I loosely laid out the pattern pieces on the (unironed) fabric, and it seemed not much fabric would be left after cutting out the dress. However, I ended up cutting out all the pieces seperately on a single layer, because I wanted to make sure the plaid pattern would match and even though I had to recut one part of the back yoke, I only used up half of the fabric. (Okay, I admit it, actually love being thrifty and using as little fabric as possible.)

Close-up of the back showing the two different prints more clearly. After a few failed attempts, extra cutting and some headache, the two back yoke pieces more or less match.

The dress is a size 86 and still a bit big on my 16-month old daughter. When deciding on the size for my niece’s dress, I went by ready-to-wear sizing, but Burda seems to run a bit bigger than that. Anyway, I figured I would use French seams, so the sleeves could be worn rolled up and still look quite neat (not something I thought about when making my niece’s dress). This was the first time – as far as I remember – that I actually used French seams. It is a mystery to me why I did not use them before, because they are not that hard and look quite pretty, even though mine are not perfect. One of the things I like about sewing for children is that it is a great opportunity to try out new techniques, as not too much textile is wasted when things go terribly wrong.

I can not stress enough how much I love this pattern, as well as the whole collection of children’s patterns in Burda 09/2013. This is the first children’s pattern I ever used and it was a joy to sew up, although it was more work than I had expected. Last year I also made Baby’s ruffle top, about which I will try to blog later. I am thinking about making the vest in some light-weight jeans fabric, to match the dress and make the whole outfit a bit tougher and autumn proof.

Proof that the dress is actually wearable, and, thus, can be seen as a succesful project.

Materials
Fabric: charity shop
Rickrack trim: Stoff och stil
Buttons: from stash