I've only ever made women's clothing, and just recently dabbled with menswear with this lovely Octopus Shirt - so I thought I'd challenge myself to something a little different in children's wear!
Step up Keira - my friend's lovely little daughter who kindly agreed to be the first Guinea pig for my sewing experimentation...
Myself and her mum chose a lovely colour for the fabric - its Kona Cotton in 'Berry' from PlushAddict. It's gorgeously soft and has a good weight to it, quality stuff. (However we later discovered it has a tendency for creasing - eek, I've just added to the ironing pile!)
The pattern is True Bias - Mini Southport Dress - having sewn up 3 of the adult versions of this pattern, (here and here and one unblogged) I thought it would be a good place to start!
As with my adult version - the buttons and placket are just decoration, they don't actually function at all. My favourite bit is the bias binding for the neckline - a little floral accent that matched well with the dress. I also used this to hem the bottom of the skirt but forgot to take a picture.
Using the same binding for the waist tie was also a happy accident - I has original used the same purple cotton for the waist tie but didn't see that it needed elastic in the back. Out in came and I whipped another up using the leftover binding which worked out better than the first version.
All in all it was a bit of a learning curve, It did feel a bit like I was making doll's clothes the entire time and I was convinced it was way too small until she tried it on and it fit! The binding was also too wide to properly do the armholes as it wouldn't take such a steep curve shape without puckering the fabric - just had to serge and turn over as normal - not ideal for kids clothes but no matter I hope it lasts!
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Precious! You need side-by-side Southport dress pictures.
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