Birthday Dress

This year I wanted to get back to making a birthday dress for my daughter. I didn’t make one for her last year or the year before. Things came up and i ran out of time. I didn’t prioritize it and so it didn’t get done. But, I wanted to keep the tradition from completely dying out so I planned early this year.

I searched high and low for a pattern. I asked the kiddo what kind of dress she wanted. When her birthday was only a few weeks out, I realized I hadn’t made enough progress. In fact, I hadn’t even settled on a pattern.

I ended up finding a pattern that she liked at a local box store and bought it. A little more time passed before I even opened the pattern. Finally a week before her birthday I opened the pattern, only to learn that it didn’t have youth sizes. Lesson learned: size the kid and check the pattern before purchasing.

The Pattern

Back to the drawing board. I searched the web for a PDF pattern that I could download and print. I found one on a website I’ve never been on before. It was called Vintage Little Ladies. So this post will not only document the fun process of sewing the birthday dress but also will act as a brief review of the pattern.

The process to purchase the dress on Vintage Little Ladies website was simple and straightforward. The checkout process was smooth and as soon as it was complete I was taken to the dashboard where I could download the pattern. I downloaded the pattern onto my computer. Then I put it on my phone also, so I could read it over while not at my computer.

I decided to download the pattern onto my office computer which is next to my sewing machine, so I could more easily have access to the instructions while I work. There were no silly download limits on the pattern and I had no trouble putting it on any of my devices.

Printing

After thoroughly reading through the pattern I printed it out. There was a page in the pattern that detailed what pattern pieces were on what pages so I could easily select the pages I needed for the the pattern style I selected. Additionally, there were measurements for the pieces that were square so I could just measure out the fabric rather than having to print a pattern piece. This saved time, ink, and paper.

Once the pattern was printed, I taped all the pages together, carefully matching up the lines and notches. I noticed that when I printed the pages at 100% to make sure the 1 inch square measured out correctly, the top and bottom edges of the pattern were cut off. There was about 1/8 inch of printed pattern on both the top and bottom. I don’t know if this was a limitation of my printer or an error with the pattern.

When I matched them up with the other pages I considered this and spaced them back out accordingly. Next, I taped the pages together and cut out the pattern pieces according to my daughters size. She was a size 8. If you purchase this pattern, know that the sizes are for girls (2T-9/10), there is a separate pattern for adult sizes.

After the pattern pieces were all cut out, I moved on to cutting out the fabric. I cut out all the pieces that were printed first, followed by the pieces that I measured out. The pattern used a main fabric, a lining fabric for the bodice and collar, and a few small pieces of lightweight interfacing.

Sewing the Birthday Dress

Finally, I started sewing her birthday dress 2 nights before her birthday party. I sewed the collar. That was it. I was so far behind at this point it’s not even funny. Whatever was I going to do? I ended up taking a little time off work on Saturday, the day before the party.

The whole day was going to be dedicated to sewing the rest of the dress. Thankfully I had already completed the collar so the rest was a piece of cake… NOT!

I spent the next 10 hours reading the pattern and sewing. In addition to being at my desk for so long,  I learned that my office chair I use for sewing is very uncomfortable for long periods of time.

The first steps in the pattern were to sew the sleeves. They were pretty easy as I followed the directions. There was one instruction that didn’t seem to make sense. Early in the sleeve production, there was a step that called for sewing a row of gathering stitches at the top of the sleeve. But I couldn’t see where they would be used in the pattern. And there was no explanation of when or how they would be used. A simple note at this step explaining that the gathering stitches would be used a little later would have clarified the step significantly.

So, I just trusted the pattern and sewed the gathering stitches and learned much later in the construction of the birthday dress just how they would be used.

Bodice and Skirt

Soon, I finished both sleeves and set them aside. I moved on to the bodice and stitched it all together. Usually, the bodice is my favorite part to sew, although this whole project was fun. Once I got the bodice completed, I moved on to the skirt.

Now, normally, the skirt portion of a birthday dress sewing pattern is no trouble for me. They are usually the easiest part and I can count on the last steps of attaching the skirt to go quickly and I know I’ll soon finish the birthday dress.

But in this case, I was sorely mistaken. This pattern used box pleats in the skirt. I had never sewn box pleats before and honestly, I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. As I began to layout the pattern markings on the fabric, I realized this was going to be time consuming. I folded the fabric from one line to the next and ironed the pleat. Each pleat had two folded sections and there were a total of 8 pleats.

Once I had all the pleats folded, ironed, and pinned, I began to sew. I sewed two basting stitch rows to hold the pleats together; and because the pleats were so big and loose, I sewed a basting stich along the bottom as well, just to hold everything together while I attached the skirt to the bodice.

Then, after the skirt was attached, the zipper remained. I was so tired at this point the instructions weren’t making sense anymore. Honestly, I have sewn zippers in before and I knew I could make it work without following the instructions explicitly.

I got the zipper installed, and then finished all the seams with a zigzag stitch. Then I went to bed. It was 1am. I was beat. I laid the finished dress on the kid’s chair in her room so she could wear it Sunday morning to church.

Conclusion

Overall, this year’s birthday dress was a fun sew. The pattern from Vintage Little Lady was a well done aside from the small issue with printing and the slightly confusing step when starting the sleeve.

Further reading: Sewing Room Essentials

Great Beginner Sewing Machine (affiliate link)