Princess VFT "Nora" Dresses

"As with the butterfly, adversity is necessary 

to build character in people"

Joseph B. Wirthlin

I hope my character was built a bit stronger!  This post was a challenge for me to write.  I enjoy writing posts praising designers and patterns and have not written one where I was so disappointed by a pattern before.  However, in the interests of other people who like to sew for little ones, I feel that I need to be honest and perhaps keep someone else from wasting time, energy, and money.

These pretty dresses were fraught with issues for me.  I had such high hopes for surprising three of the little girls I have been sewing for with dresses fit for princesses complete with crowns. I started with some gorgeous fabric with castles, unicorns, stars, and deer and a princess crown panel from Hawthorne Supply Co. and a dress pattern from Violette Fields Threads called "Nora".

The dress style is charming with a square neck and double skirts that are open on the side.  I fell in love with the many sample/tester dresses on the VFT site and purchased it along with several of the other patterns.  (Mind you, I have made three other VFT patterns without issues and loved them. See post HERE for the VFT "Luna" dress I made recently for the Sew Along challenge at Project Run & Play.)  I measured the girls and chose the sizes on the pattern that would be the best fit (or so I thought).  It is unusual to have to add chest measurements and ease measurements to get the right size.  Patterns usually have the ease added in already.  I did as directed and I measured and added the appropriate ease and still ended up with dresses that were too small!!!  I have sewn for little girls for more than 30 years and never disappointed a child like I did with this dress.  It may be user error on my part but this has not happened to me before!

Although tighter than I would like, Harper and Rory were able to get theirs on and wear them for photos.  Harper complained that she had trouble moving her arms.  Rory's fit was better but the wearing time will be short.  Tatum's dress was so tight that getting it on her was tough and the back didn't meet to close!!!  She was nearly in tears.  I felt so badly that I had disappointed her! 

Harper and Rory got to keep their dresses and did wear them a couple of times this summer.

This is Harper's dress.  She adores unicorns!  The panel for the crowns makes two crowns and has a panel for a pillow or something.  I used the panel for Tatum's dress overlay and the crown outline to make her a crown, too.

Fabric:  "Kingdom" house fabric line by Hawthorne Supply Co.  (HERE).

Note the tightness across the chest and arms.  Harper complained that it was uncomfortable to move her arms.

I deviated from the pattern in the construction of the skirt to the bodice so that there were no exposed  seams by sewing the front bodice and overlay skirts together and the under skirt and bodice lining together RST.  I was pleased with this finish and knew that the little girls would like the smoothness against their skin. I also lined the sleeves.  

Pretty butterfly buttons were purchased just for these three dresses.

The sleeves have very little ease and there is no difference between the front and the back at the sleeve cap. The arm hole openings are exactly the same on the front and back bodices, as well.  This causes an ill fitting sleeve and very little ease.  I need to pay attention to this when using other patterns with sleeves from VFT and alter the fit.

This is Rory's dress.  The one that fit the recipient best.  Probably because she is losing her rounder toddler shape now that she is three years old.

I added some length before cutting the skirts because the "Nora" style is a very short one but still needed to add another inch with Swiss edging.

After making these dresses, I went back to the VFT site and checked out the photos of the "Nora" dresses and noticed that nearly all the little girls have their arms down.  Could it be that there were more dress makers with the same issues?

Although she didn't complain, you can see the tightness across the back bodice of Rory's dress as she moves around.

Harper ended up with Tatum's dress.  Although she is two dress sizes smaller than Tatum, this dress fits her.  She wore it to school last week.

The styling is beautiful on this dress but I will not use this pattern again.  I can easily create the dress using pattern blocks that I know fit well.  My reason for purchasing it in the first place was to save myself time in drafting the look.

Project Run & Play Season #17 Sew Along: Inspired by Art

Inspired by 'A Girl With a Watering Can' 

by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

The theme for week three of the 17th season of Project Run & Play is "Inspired by Art".  This theme tickled my creative fancies!  Among my most favorite artists are the French Impressionists, particularly Pierre-Auguste Renoir.  I love the brilliant colors and the way he plays with light making his paintings appear to glow and shimmer.  The romance of pretty garden scenes, innocent children, and lovely ladies in many of his works make me relax and smile.

There were so many of his paintings that inspired me that I sketched out about 12 different dresses/outfits.  I finally decided to narrow my design down to what I could make entirely from my stash of fabrics and trims and to make the dress for my 6 year old friend, Tatum.

Inspiration:  The blue dress, wide white lace, flowers in the garden, and pops of red in the painting

Pattern:  "Luna" by Violette Fields Threads, size 6

Fabric & Trims:  Mottled blue cotton (unknown origin), scraps of cotton for appliques, plastic rose buttons, wide white lace purchased at an estate sale several years ago, DMC floss, and red lace hem tape.

Changes made to pattern:

*Omitted pockets

*Inverted box pleat in center skirt to visually divide the lace like the lace is divided on the coat dress the little girl is wearing in the painting.

*Added a bias bound continuous placket in the center back to allow for easier dressing.

*Added a second set of ties at the back waistline.

*Added appliques on the bodice front and right back shoulder to bring in the flowers from the painting.

*Hand sewed the bodice lining down and used French seams for a smooth inside finish.

*Used red lace hem tape on the hem.

I do not have an embroidery machine so all my appliques are hand cut and zigzag satin stitched.  The leaves are three dimensional and the centers of the flowers have a touch of hand embroidery.  

  

The bound placket was sewn with a piece of red bias to add another little touch of red to the otherwise plain blue of the dress back. 

The dress is sewn perfectly straight.  My poor mannequin has a permanent little tilt.   

 To add a little interest to the back of the dress I appliqued another flower with a 3D leaf.

The red lace on the inside hem is just a little 'happy' for Tatum.  

I plan on adding a better final photo tomorrow when the sun is out again.  (I was racing against the clock again!) I hope you liked my Renoir inspired dress!

For more wonderful art inspired clothes for children, please check out the Project Run & Play site HERE and HERE.

Project Run & Play Season 16: Signature Style Sew-Along Part 2

Tangerine For Chloe

This child!  This child has my heart!  This is nearly eight year old Chloe, the daughter of a dear friend and former teaching colleague, Kaye.  I have 'known' Chloe since she was just the proverbial "twinkle in her mama's eyes".  She is sweet, smart, kind, spicy, artistic, creative, loyal, and loving.  She has an imagination unrivaled by her peers.  She IS a mermaid.

I made Chloe another "Luna" dress because the style is just so her! Bohemian/artistic/imaginative!  The first one was made just a little over a year ago but the bodice is too tight to get on now.  The pattern has a simple skirt without a placket so once a child grows a bit in the chest/shoulders area, it becomes too small even though the bodice itself is roomy.  Read on to see how I conquered this problem!

This was Chloe's first "Luna" .  (Blogged HERE.)

Chloe loved going out to lunch and then having our photo shoot.  

The next day she told her mother that she just had so much fun

 and that she felt like a princess!  

Pattern:  Violette Fields Threads "Luna", size 7, (a tad large right now)

Fabric:  Cori Dantini Hello World floral,
"Depths" by Alison Glass for Andover Fabrics, 

and a house green all from Hawthorne Threads.

Trims and Buttons:  my stash

The arrow in the bottom left photo is pointing to line drawing of a mermaid.
  Perfect for Chloe!

If you are familiar with the "Luna" pattern, you will notice that I have changed the back bodice up a bit in the above photo to solve the tightness issue.   I added a two and a half inch bias bound continuous placket to the back skirt and a second set of ties.  The bodice is actually quite roomy once it gets past the shoulders.  This version of the dress will fit Chloe much longer than her first one.

Mirrors are wonderful for showing both sides of a dress at once!

These photos show the placket and ties.

These poses are all her own!  She was cracking us up!

Well, this is the last hurrah for Season 16 of Project Run & Play.

 It was a lot of fun to sew along with the challenges.  

The best part, though, was seeing the outfits on the 

little girls for whom I made them

 and watching them enjoy the clothes.  

Please check out the Signature Styles for the primary contestants HERE 

and the sew-along contestants HERE.

Project Run & Play Sew-Along Challenge: Streak, Stroke, Stripe Part 3

Chloe's Raindrops & Stripes

I had so much fun photographing sweet and sassy Chloe!

Left:  Chloe at her fourth birthday party in a vintage pillowcase sun dress over her bathing suit that I made for the event.  Right:  Chloe at almost eight years old.   

 
Chloe is my dear friend Kaye's youngest daughter and I have been sewing little gifts for her since before she was born. The first things I made were a few little hand embroidered and ruffled diaper sets for Kaye's baby shower.   I also had the pleasure of having her in my kindergarten class a few years ago.  She is sweet and spicy and so much fun!

Sewing for Chloe's style (and Mama's taste) has pushed me into this decade more than anything else!  They have helped my sewing style evolve from very traditional and heirloom into more 'trendy' and 'boutique'.  Sewing for Chloe these days requires more input from Chloe on patterns and fabrics.  For this dress, she was given the choice of four fabrics in three options of placement.

 The dress is a combination of two patterns:

Bodice Pattern:  Tadah!  Tea Party Dress with the racer back.

Skirt Pattern:  Violette Fields Threads "June"

Fabrics:  All selections from Hawthorne Threads "Parapluie" line.

Blue Shell Buttons & Striped Piping:  my stash.

I had to be on my toes when sewing this dress!  The bodice pattern is in centimeters and the skirt pattern used inches.  I made a change to the bodice lining by sewing the lining down by hand. I added piping to the pocket and pocket side panels in the skirt.

The biggest change I made to the skirt pattern was to cut it in one piece (rather than two) and create a bias bound continuous placket.  I usually prefer this to having a seam up the back, especially when using a border print. 

The bias bound placket provides a nearly invisible opening in the top of the back skirt.

 Right after Chloe changed into the dress where we held the photo shoot, I spied the mirror and asked her to stand in front of it so that I could get both sides of the dress at once.  That was all I needed to say!  She went into full model mode and I got so many adorable photos!  Unfortunately, the ones where she was cracking herself up were to blurry too use!

Chloe's verdict on the dress:  She loved the pockets and the front of the dress.  She wasn't as fond of the racer back as was her mother.  Both she and her mother would like me to deconstruct the dress when it gets too small/tight (which will be shortly as she grew since I took her measurements at the beginning of May!).  They would like me to turn the bottom of the dress into a skirt with a flat waistband in the front and elastic in the back.  I can and will do this.

Love the buttons!  They were the perfect color.

I loved the racer back and little shoulder caps.

Chloe made this so much fun!

I hope you liked this little bespoke dress! 

 Check all the wonderful "striped and streaked" creations at Project Run & Play HERE and HERE!