Friday Dress

Hello, dear blog readers! Spring is one of my favorite times of year, especially here in the Midwest when it finally starts to warm up. I think we are finally past the cold weather, although you can never be too sure. You might wear your winter and summer clothes all in one week! 

Although I have not been blogging as much, I have been sewing quite a bit. My most recent big project was to make Easter dresses for my sisters and I. First up is the Friday Dress, which I sewed for my littlest sister, Miss V. She's not so little anymore, as she likes to remind me! 

The Friday Dress is from Petit a Petit patterns and it is a very classic shirtdress design. As soon as I saw the pattern, I knew it would be perfect for my little sister. The size ranges up to 12 years, so it is a pattern I can use again and again.

There are so many options too, making it perfect for a wide range of ages. For this dress, I chose the full, gathered skirt with a mandarin collar, short sleeves, pockets, and buttons all the way down the front. The dress also comes with the options of a semi-circle skirt, traditional shirt collar, rounded collar, buttons half way down, and long sleeves.

Isn't she the cutest? I made the size 4t and lengthened the skirt quite a few inches because she is tall and I want her to be able to wear this dress for awhile.

I love the collar on this dress! It is so unique and adds a feminine touch to the traditional shirt dress.

The fabric is an Art Gallery cotton, which I bought from my favorite fabric store - Raspberry Creek Fabrics. I have never worked with Art Gallery fabrics before, but this was wonderful to sew! It is a really high quality cotton and the colors are some of my favorites. After some debating with myself and asking for other opinions, I went with navy blue buttons to accent the navy blue flowers on the fabric.

The buttonholes were the most difficult for me. I use the automatic buttonhole foot on my machine, which sometimes works great and sometimes it doesn't work well at all. My first error was mine alone because I put the wrong size button in the buttonholer. I didn't realize it until sewing all of the buttonholes! My seam ripper and I became great friends that day, haha. Even after I had the right size button, some of the buttonholes were too crooked, so I redid them again! They ended up okay in the end, but buttonholes are one of my least favorite things to sew!

The pockets were just the right size for her little hands and perfect for carrying Easter eggs!

I love the little pleat on the back of the dress. I have never sewn a Petit a Petit pattern before, but the instructions are very well done and very detailed. I was impressed with the quality. Even though I have sewn shirts and shirt dress styles before, I find that there is always something new to learn. 

Miss V loves her new Easter dress! She wore it all day on Easter Sunday and has worn it quite a few times since. She is fun to sew for, especially now that she likes (most of) the clothes I make for her!

What have you been sewing? I will be back to blog about the other dresses I made for Easter. I also have been posting for Me Made May on Instagram, so feel free to follow me there if you like!

~Elizabeth