Sunday 17 January 2016

Pintucked dress with collar

This pintucked dress caught my eye in A Sunny Spot: Girls' Simple Clothes, so when R flicked through the book and announced that she wanted one, I was thrilled! Had I remembered how useless I am at pintucks I might have chosen something else, because I really don't have the knack of lining them up and spacing them perfectly. Luckily I did the back sections first, which gave me a bit of practice before I got to the front. They worked out OK in the end, but I've resolved to buy myself some kind of precision fabric-marking tool (as opposed to chunky bits of tailor's chalk) before tackling anything like this again. Recommendations, people?


If not for the dreaded pintucks (which are on front AND  back sections of the dress) this would be a super-simple sew. The book includes an extensive photographed 'lesson' on how to sew the dress and its adult version, but really the pintucks are the only remotely difficult bit, because the dress is just one piece for the front and two for the back, plus collar and facings. I added in-seam pockets - a lesson for this is included in the book, too - and made an extra-long button loop at the back in order to place the button right under the collar so R's long fine hair won't get tangled in it.

The fabrics are linen-cotton for the dress and a thicker linen for the collar. I spent ages in Spotlight looking at fabrics and fell in love with an overpriced teal linen. Sanity prevailed and I ended up with a much cheaper linen-cotton in this gentle lavender shade, then spent a further half-hour agonising over the choice of fabric for the collar, finally settling on a very light, subtle pink. This colour combination has really grown on me, and I'm so pleased with the way the colours look together in the dress that it's actually going to be hard to let R wear it (ie spill things on it, wipe oily hands on it and go down filthy playground slides on it). But if you love something you should set it free, right? So, into the wardrobe it goes...




14 comments:

  1. So sweet - love the pintucks. And so lovely and simple in linen. Linen makes everything better:)

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    1. You're absolutely right - linen is so beautiful!

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  2. Your pintucks are beautifully spaced. I always use the fabric marker to trace or mark everything --- not the invisible one that disappears into thin air.

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    1. Thanks Jing. A few of the tucks are less than perfect, but clearly it's not too noticeable!

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  4. Such a lovely dress!! Love the pintucks and the fabrics!
    For tracing I use a Clover Chaco Liner Pen Style (there are a few colours available) and works great for me.

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    1. Thanks! I'm going to go check out those chaco liners.

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  5. It is a perfect colour combo for this dress :) I love pintucs. There is something ridiculously cute and cool about them. I only use fabric pencil to mark pintucks on my fabric and press them into position first so I could check the distance between them before I sew a stitch. It is easier to re-press them (did I just make up a word??) than to unpick. Does this make any sense?

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    1. Thanks for the tips Jenya. I did do a bit of unpicking with this one, which is always so frustrating!

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  6. Gorgeous!! So simple and pretty, like a french schoolgirl or something.

    I'm gonna say, I just sew pintucks by eye, using the seam allowance guide for the depth of the pleat and a pin to mark the end. Am I nuts? It always seems to work out. Perhaps it's not perfect, but hey, I can't see any problems with your pleats either!! HA!

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    1. Ooh, thank you Inder! French schoolgirl just happens to be one of my favourite looks (for R, that is. It would be rather disturbing on me). You must have a good eye for your pintucks to work out - I happen to have just had my eyes tested today and am awaiting some glasses; maybe once they arrive I'll be a more accurate pintucker...!

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