I have decided to take on the Kid’s Clothes Week Challenge this fall! I feel a bit behind, since everyone else has been doing this for like… forever… I even had to look up what it was. (Shhh… don’t tell anyone!) So, just in case you don’t know what it is either I will give you my 2 sentence understanding of the challenge. 1) You agree to sew for your kids (at least) 1 hour every day for 7 days starting today. 2) You load your photos up to the kid’s clothes week website and blog about it if you want to. ~ Sounds easy?

I’m excited because my oldest actually needs a few things this fall. Cardigans, leggings, zip-up sweaters, dresses… ummm… 1 hour a day is not going to cut it! I’m also excited because I’ve got some great patterns to work with from the Sew Fab bundle. I was going to write out my plan for the week, but I still have to think it up! I will see if I can get more organized tomorrow.  Are you going to join the challenge, I’m curious, what are you going to sew?! 

Back to today, this Made by Me Monday’s project was going to start on Friday night. I have a Sewcial club, we named ourselves the Material Girls, at my place once a month and I had everything ready to cut out. Until it didn’t happen… turns out it was more fun to talk about sewing than actually sew something! So, I worked on it Saturday night and finished it late Saturday early Sunday, in time to wear to church.

When I first saw the Sally dress from Very Shannon patterns (luvinthemommyhood) it made me want to sew it. It looks like such a happy dress – and I love the square neckline and giant pockets. (Helps that her daughter looks super-cute in it too!) Anyhow – because my bloggy budget is not huge I put buying things like patterns on the back burner – fabric comes first! – and about jumped for joy to see it included in the Sew Fab bundle. Really! It was the second pattern that I printed the instructions for a few weeks ago and while I was waiting for some others to print, I decided to design it up a bit and doodled on the pattern cover like so:

Awesome! It was so easy to design it when I drew over the lines in the photo and I’m super excited that the end result looks very much like my drawing! I had some green Kona and California Dreamin’ from my Bee Modern Fabrics trip. And, since my youngest daughter had chosen the California Dreamin’ herself I decided to make her the dress.

Overall I am happy with how the dress turned out. It is SUCH a cute pattern! I love the neckline and the elbow sleeves (and the giant pockets!). It is very well written and includes very detailed instructions, including how to fully line the bodice the “proper” way. All of the instructions are illustrated – making everything very professional. It was also nice to only have 2 pages to print out for the pattern pieces – the bodice and the sleeve!

The details I added were pretty easy, though time consuming. The large pleat – similar to Figgy’s Scirocco – and the 2 pintucks on either side. Also the tiny pleats on the sleeves that I had so much fun ironing (ha!). The tiny pompom trim was the thing that gave me the most trouble. It had almost no flat space to work with beside the pompoms, so I tried stitching it on with a zipper foot – only to have to try again – and rip stitches and again – and rip stitches and… again. Argh! I should have hand-stitched it on – but once I had figured that out I was on the last pocket, I’m slow to give up on machine stitching something!

Unfortunately, there is one thing I am not so happy with. I think I gave this pattern a run for it’s money by not making a muslin of the bodice. Since it does not have any zippers or button closures, it turns out that it is super hard to get on and off of my daughter. I was a bit worried about it when I was adding the long sleeves that it would not have enough room, and I suppose I should have listened to myself. If I was making it with long sleeves again I would add in enough room to put a long-ish zipper in the back, one that extends past the bodice and into the skirt – since the bottom of the bodice is the tight area that makes it hard to get into. I also have to say that my daughters both have arms that are not super skinny – so that likely doesn’t help either!

I’m curious to know what you think of the Sally dress – will you give it a go? It is SO cute… I’m wondering if I should make a sleeveless version for my oldest for KCWC because she loves to wear her summer dresses to school in the winter with long sleeved tops underneath. I also think that removing the sleeves will allow for her to more easily put it on. We’ll see!