Thursday 9 April 2015

A hide and seek dress


I've been wanting to sew the Oliver + S 'Hide and Seek' dress for quite a while, and here - at last - is my first. I have to say, this dress does not disappoint. I love the way it looks and I love the fit on R. That said, the construction involved a bit more effort than I had anticipated, with several pattern pieces and the added work (although really, it's minimal) of the welt pockets. Maybe I'm just getting lazy... or maybe it's because I've been short of time lately... but it was definitely worth it as the result is so beautiful. 

The yoke is from the same Cloud 9 collection I raved about when I made R's yoke panel skirt, and the rest of the dress is linen-cotton. Not exactly winter-weight, but I think it will look great with tights and a long-sleeved top underneath as the weather gets colder. A big thank you to Leslie of Rosemary Mornings, on whose blog I happened to see a post about how to pattern-match the back yoke pieces. Her method was so quick and easy and I reckon the back of my yoke is just about perfect!

Having read somewhere that the sizing of this pattern is quite generous, I made size 5 with size 6 length (R is about to turn 7) and it worked out very well.


The hide and seek dress looks so stunning on R, my photos really don't do it justice. It didn't help that while I was taking pictures all she wanted to do was muck around with a fibre-optic lamp, nor was it good that the sun went behind a cloud just as I began photographing (only to reemerge the moment after R decided she'd had enough and bolted, which is what she is doing in the photo on the bottom right, above). But never mind - R has a new dress, and I got to sew the pattern I've long wanted to try.

Now I can move on to preparing for R's birthday party on the weekend, when 15 little mermaid friends are coming to celebrate with her...


12 comments:

  1. It's beautiful!!!
    Sending birthday wishes and good luck with the mermaid wrangling.

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  2. The colour is gorgeous on her.

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    1. Thanks Kelsey. It's a lovely blue, not quite navy, but darker than royal blue. And thanks to Frozen, blue is R's favourite colour :)

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  3. IT's lovely on her. The combination of fabrics manages to look classic and interesting at the same time, and it fits her beautifully. This pattern was the one that really caught my eye when it came out but I've yet to buy it because I haven't been sure whether my girls would wear it.

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    1. Thanks Masha. I can imagine that not all girls would go for this style. Fortunately R is reasonably obliging when it comes to wearing things I've made, although she prefers dresses with frills and very long skirts. She also likes buttons to be on the front where she can see them... so this dress doesn't really tick any boxes, but hopefully she'll get some wear out of it anyway!

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  4. Your Hide & Seek came out so beautifully -- I love the fabric on the yoke.
    I'm glad that the tips on pattern matching in the back were helpful!

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    1. Thanks Leslie, the timing of your post could not have been more perfect!

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  5. This dress is gorgeous! The different fabric on the yoke gives a really nice look to the dress!

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  6. We made the same dress in the same size at around the same time. How exciting!!! I love your version--the yoke fabric is gorgeous and the matching perfect. It is kind of on the largish side isn't it?

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    1. It is a bit roomy, but I think I got the fit just about right by sewing the size 5 width. I'd like to sew another, but R really has enough dresses at the moment...

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