If I keep posting once each day, I might actually get my 2018 sewing up to date before the end of 2018!  That’s incentive!  This dress was sewn for Clare back in September.

There’s every chance that there will be way too many photos in this blog post, because I love this dress so much!

The pattern is New Look 6487, one of their ‘sized for tweens’ patterns.  From their website: Girls’ shirt dresses are adorable in chambray and shirting fabrics. Pattern features collarless dress with long sleeves and shirttail hem, or gathered skirt with appliques. Collared sleeveless dress can have shirttail hem with belt or gathered skirt.

I picked up the fabric at Spotlight.  I called in to one of their larger stores one day after dropping the girls off at a Guide camp.  This embroidered chambray jumped out at me, with one of my girls in mind.

Because the embroidery ran along one selvedge, I had to do most of the cutting out on the cross grain. As with most sewing, getting the cutting out right is vital! I did my best to get the motifs centred and matching, within the limitations of the design. We decided to keep the yoke, pockets, collar and cuffs plain, and focus the embroidery sections along the bottom of the dress and the sleeves.

You’ve probably already guessed that this was a fairly slow sew. There are lots of components. Cutting out took a while, and so did assembly. Most construction was done on the sewing machine. I only used the overlocker to finish edges.

When I look at the photos of Clare wearing this I wish that I’d placed the buttons and buttonholes differently. The one above the bust point creates awkward ‘pulls’, which aren’t due to the dress being too small.

Size wise….what size did we decide on? I’d need to pull out the pattern pieces to check. I have a feeling it was size 12 girls with size 14 length. The sleeves are a fraction long, but she’ll often wear them rolled up.

The sleeve cuffs are simply constructed, without a tower placket or similar. The sleeve edge is straight, then the shorter cuff is attached to it with a ‘gap’ that forms a pleat when the cuff is buttoned up. It’s actually quite straightforward.

I found the buttons at The Cloth Shop.  I had plenty of white buttons in stash, but wanted something that would blend in, with more of a ‘jeans’ vibe to tone with the embroidered chambray.  And a shout out to those embroidered platform sandals – they’re from Django & Juliette, via my fave eBay seller.  Like me, Clare (and now Stella) are sample size.

There are actually a number of options included in this pattern. You can see that Clare chose the classic straight shirt-dress option, with the added tie belt.  This choice did mean that the straight embroidery had to be incorporated into a curved hem.  It’s worked okay.

The other options are cute too.  I wonder if Clare or Stella would like view C for summer – maybe with the mandarin collar?  This pattern definitely allows for mixing and matching the details.

This is probably one of the stand-out garments that I’ve made this year. It has only been worn a couple of times so far, however. The items that are worn the most are the simple Hey June t-shirts that I’ve churned out in multiple (and possibly haven’t even blogged).  I’m confident though that this will stay in the wardrobe and be worn trans-seasonally, as it can also be worn with tights and boots.  A definite success.