This pattern has been sitting in stash for a little while.  It’s the Go To Patterns Signature Dress.

This dress has a number of sleeve options, pocket options, neckline/hood options, waist options and length options. I figured that it would be a great pattern for Stella in particular. She really enjoys wearing stretch fabric dresses. I used cotton/lycra knits from Spotlight (last year’s bargain table).

We chose to make a layered sleeve, round neck, elasticised raised waist, knee length version. The pattern is drafted to have a couple of small tucks (or gathers) at the centre front and back. I converted them to just the one larger inverted tuck at both front and back, a change that I think is for the better. The neckband is in self-fabric and the long undersleeves in contrasting cotton/lycra.  I used a simple zig-zag to secure hems and attach the waistline elastic casing.

Go To Patterns also have a Leggings pattern. So I made Stella a pair of leggings from the same fabric as the dress. One piece only, easy peasy, takes almost no time to make! I used size 5, as I did for the dress.

I think that this is a great basic pattern for girls’ stretch fabric dresses. My only quibble? The same quibble that I have with many pdf patterns – you have to assemble the entire massive sheet in order to locate and cut out the pattern pieces that you want, as many of the pieces are printed so that they go across a number of sheets – often unnecessarily, in my opinion.  If only the pattern sheets would be drawn with each piece across as few sheets as possible, so that with the aid of a master sheet you only need to print the ones that you want! Especially when there are lots of pattern piece options. Other than that, this is a pattern that I will be using again – actually, I already have!