[meleliza]

I haven’t looked at this pattern yet because I’m quite behind on sewing projects – but at a glance, it seems like it might just be destined to become the kind of easy and attractive staple as the ice cream dress. What do you all think about lengthening or shortening the sleeves on this one? Also, what do you think about lenghtening the entire pattern for a tunic or dress? I’ve only seen one or two of these on the flickr group so far, but they look lovely.

[KellyNYC]

I agree about it becoming a staple and just posted something similar. The pattern actually includes both a dress version and a shirt version. But I think an in-between tunic length would be great!

[Violaisabelle]

I was just reading through this pattern this morning, since I want to make some dresses for the charity I am sewing for and am planning to make dresses from this pattern. It’s funny, Kelly, I never saw a dress version in the pattern, I guess I completely missed that one. I’ll have to go back over it now. 🙂 I have a few ideas running in my head. I hope I can get to sewing them up in the next week.

Meleliza, I was also planning to shorten the sleeves a bit on this design. The specs I have been given for the charity want the sleeves to not be long, which gives some flexibility to it, but I am guessing I will make this above elbow length. Looking at the pattern pieces, it should be fairly easy to do. With a bit of re-shaping, you could even make this with an elastic casing or even shirring for a shorter version as well.

I am hoping to trace off the pattern later today. I guess I will get to see the dress length then.

Looking forward to seeing your creations. 🙂

Carol

[KellyNYC]

Oh! Silly me, I had confused the class picnic with family reunion! Sorry for the confusion.

[sayiamyou]

The pattern IS lovely! Just wait’ll you sew it up!

I was just wondering in the middle of the night (terrible thunderstorm, had to calm down somehow) how this might look lengthened for a dress, with maybe elastic thread around the middle? I’m imagining a little loose poof around the middle and a long ‘skirt’? Does that even make sense? I’ve never used elastic thread so I could just be cooking ideas up purely on sleep-deprived imagination….

[Violaisabelle]

Kelly,

I did not get to tracing off the pattern yesterday, as I have been a bit ill. Glad to know I wasn’t missing something there. 😉

Maraya, shirring it is what I am actually hoping to do, with two different ideas. I had been in a fishing and hunting store on Tuesday, of all places, and they had a top, very similar to this pattern. What they did was shirred the yolk, which is why I was studying the pattern yesterday and hoping to get to it. I was also wondering about the shirring for the middle of the blouse, but I am guessing, as I have not tried this, you might want to eliminate the seam with the yolk and skirt portion of the blouse, allowing the middle section to take the fullness. If I get a chance to play with the pattern today, I’ll attempt to show you what I mean. The yolk shirred was lovely, and it was not lined, of course, it was single layer, meaning you would alter your construction just a bit. The shirring went right into the seam between the yolk and skirt. It was very well done. I need to play with the neckline to see if I can do it as is or if I will need to straighten the neckline before shirring.

I would love to see what you come up with for this pattern.

Carol

[sayiamyou]

I don’t consider myself incredibly inventive, but please do show us what you have in mind because it does sound like what I’m imagining! And yes, I bet shirring the yoke alone would be beautiful too!

The yoke in this pattern is lined on the inside which sounds like it would be better for comfort against tiny skin.

[Noodles]

I have just cut out 2 blouses with lengthened arms to full length. Have still to sew them up. Will post some pics once done. I’ve also cut out a few in flannelette (remember it’s coming on to winter down here) and can’t wait to sew them up for some nice cuddly tops to wear.

[sayiamyou]

Oh, I bet it’ll be nice in the flannelette. On a side note, is there a difference in your flannelette and our flannel? How do you keep it from pilling in the wash? I would use it much more often if it wasn’t for that.

[Violaisabelle]

I got the pattern traced off and a muslin made. I played with the yolk piece and did a bit of shirring, with a different yolk piece and some alterations. I think there are several things one could do with shirring for this blouse and made as a dress.

For those of you who have made the blouse, is your daughter able to get in and out of the blouse without help? I used the size 8 for the muslin which appears to fit perfectly, but my daughter needs assistance getting it on and off. I am going to go up to size 10 and see how the fit is, before playing more with the shirring.

I’ll play some more with this pattern, later tonight.

Carol

[mrsc1345]

My daughters need help getting them on and off. It’s not that they are a tight fit persay, it’s just there is a kind of order of operation to get it on my girls haven’t gotten yet.

[Nicole]

Washing the garment inside out helps prevent pilling Mel AND the Amy Butler flannelette seems to be a good quality that doesn’t pill as readily.

[Sarvi]

I have wondered about flannel and pilling — I made some burp clothes that are flannel (and cheap flannel, too) on one side and there’s no pilling, and they get brutalized in the wash, while I have a beautiful hand-me-down dress in what I’m sure is much nicer flannel that has some pilling. Any idea why that might be? Have the pills gotten scrubbed off by the rough washing? Maybe cheaper flannel is less fluffy so there’s less fuzz to pill?

[Noodles]

oo thanks for the tip Nicole. I have made bedtime story pjs out out of free spirit urband flannel and it hasn’t pilled at all. However my cheap flannel (or flannelette which ever you wish yo call it) has a little. The picnic tops I’ve cut out so far are made out of flannel I picked up from a friends garage sale (her step fathers ex was a hoarder and had literally 50 suitcases of fabric) so I’m unsure what will happen with them in the wash. They certainly didn’t pill when prewashed though.

I’m really making them mostly for my Noodle to wear to Daycare though, so it doesn’t really matter as it’s likely to end up covered in paint,sand, food, glue and anything else she can get her hands on!

Melissa

[Sarvi]

Curious to see what mods people have made — I’m still working on my first one and thinking of the next one already.

Also, I made burp cloths, not burp clothes — she didn’t burp *that* much.