My niece, Isabella, came out for her first post-Covid visit at the end of October. We planned a bunch of fun activities: Monterey Bay Aquarium, dog walking, dinners out. And, Isabella wanted to sew another dress. Last time she visited she made this little number, and we had a blast doing it.
This time we did some emailing back and forth ahead of time to zero in on a pattern and fabric. That way we could spend maximum time at the machine.
Isabella is a young teen (a.k.a. tween). I pawed through my back issues of Burdastyle and I was a bit surprised how few of the patterns are aimed at tweens. There are tons for babies, girls, and boys, but only a few for the young teen. We settled on dress 133 from the June, 2015 issue.
It was recommended as a good pattern for the beginning sewist, so right up our alley. Just a couple of pattern pieces, and with a loose enough fit that I thought we could make it work in the short time we had available. Isabella found a couple of fabrics she liked by perusing the Hart's website. I picked up a few yards, got the pattern traced out in what I hoped would be her size and we were ready to hit the ground running.
There were just a few bumps in the road. For one thing, the pattern was drafted for a woven but we would be working with a knit. I figured the design would adapt pretty well, but we decided to beef up the straps by inserting some elastic before attaching them.
The second issue was my bad. I bought the recommended yardage and pre-washed it, but I didn't try laying out the pattern pieces ahead of time. Wouldn't you know it, the fabric had shrunk enough that we couldn't quite make things fit without doing some creative jiggering. I told her parents we were doing sewing with some bonus math. By shortening both the overlay and the skirt, we were able to make it work and still keep that maxi-dress spirit going.
Once we came up with the pattern layout, Isabella took over and did the whole shebang herself: cutting out, pinning and sewing. Here she is, working away at the machine. Even working with knit fabric and seams on the bias, she kept everything accurate and tidy.
And here she is, wearing the finished dress. Beautiful, am I right?
Isabella is a dancer, so she really knows how to rock a swishy maxi-dress.
I bet by next visit she'll be into the lady sizes and then the sky will be the limit.
My pattern review is on PatternReview.com here.
No comments:
Post a Comment