[E1izabeth]

I’m planning to make View B for my daughter for her to wear on her 1st birthday. I want to keep the garment itself as simple as possible since the print is a bold pink/white geometric. I am planning to eliminate the front flaps and add simple white piping to the waist seam. But I also want to eliminate the buttons on the back skirt panels and just have the buttons on the bodice back. I was thinking I’d take the front skirt pattern piece, fold out the pleat and trace it again to create a single back skirt pattern piece. Do you think that would work? The bottom of the bodice back placket pieces would overlap and be sewn shut in the waist seem so that area would have some bulk but do you think that would be a terrible problem? I’m hoping someone here can stop me if I’m about to make a big mistake altering the pattern.

[janimal]

I think that it would be tough to put the dress on with just buttons on the back. bodice. Hard to tell, but I think that would be a struggle.

If you go for it, instead of using the front pattern piece to make a back piece, how about fold out the pleat on the two back pieced and then overlap them and tape together for your back pattern piece?

[Liesl Gibson]

Yes, I’m afraid the seam is too high and it would be difficult to get the dress on and off. I would suggest keeping the back buttons or at least using snaps or velcro.

[Nicole]

I think you could do it ! Make a muslin first to make sure!

I would cut the back on the fold and then mark a line , sew a ‘v’ either side ( like the sleeve placket in the sketchbook/music class shirt) and bind that seam. Then it could open with the bodice for ease of dressing, but not actually have any buttons on it.

Clear as mud?

[E1izabeth]

Thanks for your advice ladies! I never even thought about having issues getting it over her head and shoulders without the buttons on the skirt.

Motherof5 – I actually know exactly what you are talking about and that is a great idea. I just made the music class blouse a couple of weeks ago so that little sew the v, clip center and bind the edge thing is fresh in my mind. I will either do that or just trust Liesl’s original vision and make the dress with the original design but with very simple buttons.

I will post pictures to the flickr stream when I get it done. Thanks again for your help everyone!

[Anonymous]

Perhaps clear buttons?

[E1izabeth]

Clear buttons are an excellent idea! However, when I finally layed the pattern pieces out on my fabric I realized that I just couldn’t get a nice pattern match between the bodice and the skirt because of the combination of my vertical directional print and the inverted box pleat… so I have cancelled the project for the pink birthday dress. I think it is just the wrong fabric for this pattern.

[E1izabeth]

Also, now that I have made this dress up once I totally see how the waist seam is too high to forgo the back skirt buttons. Glad I didn’t plow ahead with my original plan!

[meleliza]

So if the bodice is too high, might there be another way to make the pattern a pull-on one? I love the pattern itself, but I’m thinking that all those buttons would be really hard to do up on a baby. Or even a squirmy toddler!

[runciblespoon]

Hello Meleliza – I don;t know about the pull-on option, but I’ve done this a couple of times with snaps instead of buttons up the back, and they are super-quick to do up even when my baby isn’t in a dressing mood! I think it helps that this fastens at the back away from little fingers. Hope you decide to go for it, it’s such a lovely little dress.

[meleliza]

You think? I always avoided stuff that buttons down the back or pulls over heads for my boys because babies hate that! My daughter, on the other hand, is just 2 1/2 months old and I already find myself sacrificing comfort for fashion and buying back-buttoning things or stuff with those ruffles or collars that just get in their faces and make them fuss. 🙂 But buttoning all the way down the back – I’ve only gone that far with christening robes. It’s just so hard to get on!

[icicle]

Oh, on my daughter’s Music Box, I NEVER unbutton it all the way — just a few at the top to slip it over and on/off.

[Sarvi]

I’m also a fan of back (rather than front) buttons because I can keep buttoning while the baby is playing with her toys.

[meleliza]

Sarvi – not until they’re sitting up, though, right?

I will go for this, but maybe not til the fall when she’s mobile.

[Cellisttoo]

I made the music box jumper (view B) as a school uniform this weekend for my 6 year old. My mother, who is a much more experienced seamstress than I, suggested eliminating the buttons on the skirt, because she thought it would be uncomfortable to sit on buttons all day. We left the placket on the back of the bodice with a single button at the top. We made it out of gabardine- with no stretch.

The jumper is fairly tight to get on over her head, though not impossible. I am trying to think of other options we could use when we make it up the next time to make it a little easier. One option would be a zipper as someone else suggested in a separate thread. The only problem with this is that she would not be able to get dressed herself. The other option we discussed was to extend the placket beyond the empire waist, but we are back to using buttons that she would have to lean against. We could use smaller buttons, but little miss kindergartner REALLY likes some rather thick (and large) panda buttons. We even considered using a panda button at the top and different buttons below that, but I was unsure if that would detract from the very beautiful finish of this jumper.

Besides this self created dilema, the jumper turned out beautifully.

We had three general questions about this pattern that perhaps someone else could weigh in on:

1) How much should the button placket over-lap

2) What is the suggested hem length- 5/8″ single folder or something else double fold?

3) We struggled with the bottom of yoke lining. I think in the future I would fold the bottom of the lining in slightly less than 1/2″ It was hard to catch the lining when doing the ditch stitching. I had to hand sew some of it.- I guess that is more of a comment than a question.

Thanks!