A Rainbow Tinny Dress

This is a dress designed by Freya herself!

Freya has a bit of a love for rainbows at the moment, so when she saw this fabric in the shop she took it straight to the counter.  She is starting to involve herself a lot more in my choosing fabrics for her nowadays (when she's not busy helping the ladies behind the counters)

We took it home and I had some ideas of what I could make and then I decided to ask her.  She was quite particular.  It needed a twirly skirt, zip not buttons, no sleeves and a yellow collar.  At first I was a bit dismayed as a yellow collar wasn't even on my radar but when I held the fabrics together it really worked!

I went straight for the Tinny dress by Straightgrain.  I seriously love this pattern and all of it's options.  This time I tried the asymmetrical collar and the pleated skirt as I was worried about using this directional print with a circle skirt.

As ever it was a straightforward sew.  I sewed the cap sleeved version to sneakily get some sleeves in there.  I absolutely hate setting in sleeves and have a great love of built in cap sleeves.

The dress was a big hit and I think I''ll always like it for how decisive and involved she was in the making of it. I'll have to start asking her opinion more often.

The Dancing Maren Dress

Apparently some dresses are made for dancing in, and according to Little Miss, this is one of those dresses!

This is a Maren dress that I got as part of the Sew What Club.  I'd previously made one of these before and figured it was high time to make another one.

This is some Cotton and Steel fabric that I'd looked at before but after having the idea to make another Maren dress, finally went and bought it. I took my time cutting it too, so the stripe matches up the whole way round. 

I know a white dress really isn't really very practical, but it was just too damn cute!  Luckily she's a bit of a neat freak, so I think we'll be OK

The pattern went together mostly very quickly.  The neckline was a little fiddly with the curve and the facing doesn't have the keyhole shape to it.  I also found the pleat marks on the pattern didn't match up properly.  I renamed some of the pleat lines on the pattern and fudged the last end ones to make it fit.  It's a shame because otherwise it's a very simple pattern.  I'll probably still try and make it again though as I love the style.

All being said though I still love this dress.  Hopefully now Spring is on it's way she'll get to wear it a whole lot!  It was a good day for photos so here comes the overload!

 I told you this dress was made for dancing!