When the Great British Sewing Bee started showing again in the Springtime, i was so excited – i love that program! I hardly watch TV at all, but this is always a MUST! And as always, it can be so inspiring! It wasn’t long before my trusty machine came out for a little play!
I picked up some super cute apple print fabric a while back, and so i decided i wanted to use this for the dress – along with some grey fabric. (Don’t tell anyone, but the grey fabric is actually offcuts from our bedroom curtains….sshhhh!)
As I am an idiot and have never followed a pattern before, i decided to wing it. I drew around one of piper’s tops to get a rough guide for the size of a 3 year old torso. Here’s the first stage of the project- can you see i lined the inside with plain red fabric?
I hadn’t ever really tried pleating, so i though, what the heck- lets give this a go! It was lots of fun! For the back i put in a white zip- i was so in love with the project i had to hand sew the zip – i wasn’t prepared to chance a whoopsie at that stage – but i made sure it fit into a pleat so when it is zipped you cannot see the white zip at all!
I wanted to line the skirt with red and give it a little peek-a-boo tulle lining, but i didn’t have enough red fabric. Instead i cut a long length of red fabric about 3.5inches wide, sewed some tulle to it, and the stitched it to the underneath of the dress. Once again for this bit i actually hand sewed it – the grey fabric would show every pin hole otherwise.
Here it is! the final piece – i even put together a little headband made from scraps. One thing i am particularly pleased about is the top stitching on the apple print section – it makes the dress so pretty and keeps all the pieces in shape. Happy Mummy!
The best thing about this dress?….the best thing EVER is that Piper wore it for her Birthday Photo shoot, by the enormously talented Elizabeth Boyle. Boy do i love her work! There were so many photos to choose from but here are a few of my favs! Take a look!
<3
Thanks for stopping by!
