Three Girls, Three Days, Three Dresses

Last year on Black Friday I bought a few patterns on super-sale. One of those was the Uptown/Downtown Dress pattern from Sew Straight and Gather. I printed it out soon after, but became distracted with other projects and didn't assemble it until last week. And then, with it assembled, what else was there to do but sew it up? Three times!

  This fabric is an interlock knit from Girl Charlee, and is unfortunately no longer available. I actually bought mine when someone in the Girl Charlee Facebook group decided to destash it, so I had just under 3 yards to work with!

  I planned when I bought it to make an Uptown Downtown dress for Booper. Once I had the fabric laid out, I thought there was a small chance I'd be able to squeeze one out for Gaiw too. And once those two were cut I realized there was just enough for a dress for Beckers! I'm kind of wondering if there's enough left in the scraps for a newborn-sized dress, although the pattern doesn't go that small. (Yep, baby #4 is apparently a girl too!)

  I cut a size 5 width for Booper, but lengthened the hem quite a bit. It's about 6 inches longer than the size recommendations in the pattern, which put her in the 5 width and the 7 length.

  For Gaiw, I went with a size 3 width cut the hem at the size 6 length. According to the pattern, a size 3 width and 4 length is correct for her.

 Beckers' dress is a size 2 width and 3 length. She's a bit smaller than the smallest size in the pattern, but the closest size would have been 2 in width and height.

  Based on the fit of the dresses, it looks like the pattern is pretty consistent in its sizing! =) Just shorter than these girls need, since they are constantly growing!

  The pattern does not have any notches, but I do like the nicely finished neckline. It is pretty low though... and definitely too low once it's been worn and stretched out for a day! Next time I'll raise the front neckline by 1" for any size, and these necklines are probably going to get an inset.

 The pattern has very detailed instructions... maybe even a bit too informative and helpful! It felt like a lot of text for what is a pretty basic sew. They'd be great for a beginner though.

  The lining is Girl Charlee swimsuit lining. I think it might be too warm for a full lining, but I really like it for partial linings. It's really slippery, which makes it pretty difficult to cut and sew, but works well to keep the drape of the outer fabric. Since it's a nylon-spandex blend it doesn't press well, so it works better with under-stitching or top-stitching.

  It's probably a good thing there wasn't enough fabric to make myself a matching dress, right? ;-)

  These dresses were a really quick sew! From cutting the pieces to burying the thread ends was only 3 days of sewing... not full days, but days where I squeezed in what I could. Considering that one garment usually takes me the same amount of time, these felt really fast.

  I lettuce-edged the skirt and sleeves instead of hemming them like the pattern suggests. I just really like lettuce-edging! =)

I'm looking forward to making more of these with some of the other options. =)

Thanks for stopping by,