My daughter, Dora, loves a good twirly dress. I’ve made her a ton of dresses, but I’ve noticed she doesn’t like to wear wovens that much. She prefers stretchy dresses that don’t have zippers or ties to deal with. Now that I have my serger, I’m much more confident about sewing with knits, so it’s been really fun to try to make her stuff she’ll love to wear.
Looking for a simple, twirly pattern for knits, I found the Bella Sunshine Designs Sahara dress (which also comes in a women’s version). It’s a lined bodice and a very full circle skirt, and you can add sleeves or make it into a tunic if you prefer. There’s also a free pockets add-on, which I absolutely should have used, but, as always, I was staying up way too late to work on this dress and ended up just skipping them in order to get the dresses finished.
This pattern turned out to be a big winner. I made the first version in a slightly stretchy pink satin pulled from the Joann remnant bin. I lined the bodice with a horrible white knit from my stash and added an underskirt out of a yellow satiny something I’ve had for years. I hemmed the overskirt slightly higher than the underskirt, just to show off the yellow.
I made the dress in a size 8, even though my daughter is 5, because the pink satin wasn’t super-stretchy and I like to leave room for D to grow. So I was surprised to find that the bodice is actually way too tight. She still wears it, because she loves it, but she needs help pulling it on and off.
I’d planned to make the next version in a ridiculously shiny silver stretch fabric (another remnant bin find), but discovered three-quarters of the way through cutting the skirt that there was no way I was going to have enough fabric for the whole thing. So the skirt is a blue knit that matches the bodice lining. Having learned my lesson, I cut the bodice in a size 10 and just shortened the straps by an inch, and the fit is perfect. She’s already worn it twice since it came off the sewing machine.
It’s really fun to have an opinionated kid to sew for. Next, she has requested purple shorts, with lots of pockets, and a pair of purple overalls. (Violet, from The Boxcar Children, always wears purple.) I have the fabric for those all set, but she’s going to have to wait ’till I finish my own Vogue 9253. I’m trying to alternate between sewing for her and sewing for me!