Tamara

You could definitely do that. Do you have the Gallery Dress pattern? I imagine it working much like that. Cut the back with extra at the centre back fold line, then create a box pleat with a rectangle about 1&1/2″ deep at the neck line.

Full of trial and error and past failures, 🙂 but your compliment is gratefully received.
Shelley

When a pattern is drafted to be sleeveless, the shoulder will be narrowerer and the armhole more inward, so just attaching a sleeve won’t work so well.

But, it’s easy. Trace the Birthday party dress in the size you want then lay the bodice tracings over another pattern and redraw the shoulder/armhole area. Now you have the “pattern X” armhole in…[Read more]

Next week four patterns arrive
I think I’ll be buying all five
But oops, I bought six

Next week four patterns arrive
I think I’ll be buying all five

🙂

I wish I was living in Spain
Where the rain stays mainly on the plain
But I’m here in Nantucket

Whatever you like!
But here’s a picture where i prove that you can French seam every seam on the Lullaby Layette blouse/bodysuit. It’s a lovely, tidy finish if you can be bothered. If you look in the tutorials section of the website you’ll find quite a number of seam finish tutorials.

I confess I bought myself a big, benchtops snap press a few years ago – what’s a hobby if it doesn’t allow for tool purchases, right?!
I’ve heard good things about the Snap pliers (KAM or Snapsource), but in my experience the hammer in snaps you can buy from fabric shops are a nightmare. (Bear in mind I’m in Australia and the plier snap sets don’t…[Read more]

I think I’ve only made the tulip sleeve once in all my Fairy Tale iterations, but no, no problems…
Did the sleeve sew into the armhole ok? Obviously, the amount of overlap would affect the tightness when worn but would also change how the sleeve attached.
From memory, after you’ve overlapped there’s still a bit of gathering of the sleeve head.…[Read more]

Hi Nancy. My feeling is that the pants are the simplest of the three garments in the Lullaby Layette.
However, there’s nothing overly tricky about the jacket or blouse/bodysuit and the instructions will walk you through it nicely. In fact, if you ever quilted and you’re a dab hand at applying binding then you might find the jacket the…[Read more]

Hi Lisa,
Sorry for the late reply. Can you specify which pattern piece you’re referring to. Or which step in the instructions.
Are you working from the paper pattern or a print out if the PDF?
I can look at the printed pattern and see if I can help, but not having made it before I’m not sure which piece has gathering.
Shelley

Hi Heidi. There are heaps of these type of dress patterns out there, especially among the indie pattern companies.
For me, I’d start with the dropped sleeve bodice, so I’d use either the maritime tee, or the weekend getaway patterns for the bodice (for the weekend getaway, just cut on the Gold and omit the facings) then just drafting the length…[Read more]

I’m all about shorts at the moment, so I’d plump for Sandbox pants as shorts with love heart shaped pockets!

Lots of options:
I’m sure @juliamom2009 used fold over elastic.
Or, you could make long tubes of fabric and then put elastic inside them, like gathered straps.
My daughter just requested a jumpsuit like that so she doesn’t have to re-tie the bows with every toilet break.

Ah ok, thanks Shelley. I can see that. I will give it a go!

From looking at diagrams for high/round/full bottom adjustment, I think it’s best described as an FBA for the backside.
It’s the same slash, pivot and spread as an FBA but applied to the middle(ish) part of the centre back seam.
Does that make sense?

Looking at the instructions and pictures again, and checking the true 1″ wide facing strip, I can only conclude there’s an error…
@liesl ? It works perfectly with the instructions and illustrations if the strip were even 1/4″ wider…
Currently you sew 1/2″ inch, fold over 1/4″ and that only leaves 1/4″ to cover the seam allowances. Yet the…[Read more]

To save modifying my comment again I’ll leave the error there for posterity 🙂
I was adding up to a strip of some width other than 1″ (1&1/2″ would be the sum of 1/2″+3/4″+1/4″)
Anyway, the short answer is: trim those seam allowances aggressively and maybe fold your raw edge over by slightly less than 1/4″
Apologies for the brain fade.

For your first question about adjusting the skirt: if you took the bodice in at the side seams I would do the same with the skirt. Simply because it makes the maths simpler.

The cuff question: you’re on the right track with your stitching but you’re imagining the next step differently to where the pattern is taking you. 🙂
The raw, unstitched…[Read more]