cottage mama | After Dark Sewing

This is one of my most favourite recent dresses! I made it for a little 1 year old, but my own 3 year old, has since ordered one for herself…
I was asked to make an Alice dress (for an Alice in ONEderland first birthday party). This is what I came up with:

I used the Cottage Mama Vintage Georgia dress pattern as a base, then made a few adaptations. I curved the collar’s corners slightly; on the pattern they’re quite sharp.

I added the broderie trim on the sides of the bib (the pattern calls for piping there), and the hem of the overskirt. Of which I made more like an apron by only cutting the front piece and hemming the sides as well as the hem.

I think a lot of the Alice-likeness comes from the choice of colours; where to put blue, and where to put white, which looks like an apron over the top of a dress.

The back features a beautiful big bow, and snap fastenings. Snaps were my second option because I had an issue with the buttonholes… there was too much bulk in the seam to sew the lowest buttonhole; the foot just doesn’t go over it. So I had to panic, unpick the others, and improvise with KAM snaps. But I do really like the look of the pearly white snaps anyway – every cloud, eh?

The Georgia Vintage dress is a lovely pattern – probably best for intermediate level; some of the instructions aren’t perfectly clear for beginners and there are some techniques you want to get accurate, like the collar. I really dislike unsymmetrical collars!

Hope you like it…

Beth x

I finally got round to making another party dress (by Cottage Mama) to match the one I made my eldest daughter a good couple of months ago!!

My motivation was my taking part in Sew Selfless September. This is my third and final piece of selfless sewing. (Not ever! Just for the challenge!)

*By the way, sorry for bombarding you with photos… I can’t choose the best ones!!*

I often make one thing using a pattern, and don’t use it again. This dress taught me that using a pattern again is great – I whizzed through it because of course I knew what I was doing.

If you read my post about my first party dress, you will know that I had some trouble with the alignment of the fairies. I was fussy; I wanted them all to line up. So I had some pieces cut from last time that I could use this time; just trimming the sides a little. That definitely sped up the cutting stage!

If I’m honest, I think it’s a tad tight around the bust – well, it’s OK for now, but there’s little or no growing room there.

This is probably because I decided to put in normal buttons, after having problems making that blessed rouleau loop that should have been made to make the loop style buttonholes. I even have the fancy turner tool, but it just wasn’t working.

So of course the bodice back pieces overlap slightly, which is included in the pattern. By this point, I’d already cut the pieces, so I wasn’t going to go back and make it bigger!

Little one needs to stop growing now anyway. She’s supposed to be my baby!

I really need to learn how to tie a proper, neat bow. Having said that, even if I did have that knowledge, I’m not too sure that she’d stay still for me to do it neatly. I can just about manage a scruffy bow before she wriggles away!

I just love this pattern. It’s so simple yet so rewarding. It’s such a classic party dress style. I was shopping earlier today and saw dresses similar to this (albeit not in such a cute print!) and thought to myself – do you know what, Beth? You don’t need to waste £15 on one of those, you can make one yourself. As long as you can find the right fabric, you can sew such pretty little girls’ dresses. And it’s such fun too – bonus!

It’s a shame that I’ve used almost all the fairies side of the duvet cover up now, though… I suppose it’s a good job I only have two girls to clothe in matching dresses!

I will definitely be using this pattern again. I love that it spans all the way up to Age 10. I can see many more party dresses in my girls’ wardrobe in the future… and they’re all handmade 🙂 (Besides gifted ones, of course! We have a lovely family member who often gives the girls beautiful Monsoon dresses – now they’re something to compete with!)

Oh goodness, if either girl turns out to be a tomboy, I WILL NOT BE HAPPY!!

Anyway… I’m rather impressed with my topstitching. I don’t know if you can even see it but I’ll tell you – it’s neat! It’s all in the details 🙂

Well, that’s all I have to say about this dress really. There were many more highs than lows – no disasters, and I can’t even remember unpicking anything!! The phrase ‘practice makes perfect’ is proven correct once again. Must make more garments with the same pattern!

Beth x