I bought this gorgeous pattern a little while ago and gave myself a challenge to try it out with fabric and supplies I already had, rather than buy new stuff. I have been trying to reduce my fabric pile (so that I can justify getting more…) I used a navy blue polyester gabardine that was a real pain. It frayed like anything and would not succumb to the iron at all. It would not have been my first choice (or second, or third) of fabric for this dress and I’m not really sure it does the wonderful pattern justice. However, it was a great practice run and my girl does like it.
The leggings are included in the pattern too. A great little versatile pattern to have.
Because the navy gabardine needed brightening up, I decided to use piping on the seam edges. I made the piping using Anna Maria Horner’s Little Folks voile.
Though adding piping is pretty straightforward, I thought I’d outline how I did it in case you are interested in doing something similar.
First I took the front panel and laid it out. I pinned the piping on both sides from the underarm seam down to the bottom of the pocket.
Next, using a zipper foot I seed the piping onto the dress front.
There may be better ways to do this, but I like to use a contrasting color for my bobbin thread. Once the layers for fabric start to build up over the piping and you can’t feel where it is when sewing, I use the bobbin thread as a guide. Of course, the bobbin thread gets covered eventually by something else so at that point I just keep my fingers crossed.
Lovely pattern, great dress and leggings. Shame about the gabardine but I’m looking forward to thinking about what fabric and look I’m going to go for next time I make this.
