With the arrival of January and life slowing down a bit, I am finally finishing up a few projects. One of them is this little dress for my new niece Camila. I have wanted to try the Infant Snowdrift pattern for awhile and thought the unusual colors of this Chartreuse Floral Broadcloth would be fun to work with. I made a size 18 months - partly to give myself plenty of time to get it finished, partly to make sure Camila could wear it for more than a week or two and partly to make sure she didn't outgrow it before the season was appropriate for short sleeves. This broadcloth has quite a bit of body to the fabric which I loved. Before cutting out the dress, I lengthened the skirt so I could use my favorite hem technique on the skirt. In the picture it is difficult to see the tuck, but the tuck allows you to stitch up the hem in a single pass and gives that lovely A-line shape to the dress. Of course, there needs to be a set of panties to go under this dress and the Infant Snowdrift pattern comes with a panties pattern. I followed Julie's wonderful tutorial and made the panties eliminating the button casing.
I used Chartreuse Twill to edge and line the panties as well as create the piping that goes along the top of the smocking and around the neckline. Originally I also used the twill to finish the the sleeve edges but it was just a little too bulky and I was afraid that Camila's arms wouldn't fit. So as painful as it was, I ripped out the piping and binding on the sleeves and piped and bound the sleeves with the Chartreuse Floral instead. I also reduced the gathering by an inch so the cap sleeve now has a bigger armhole. One word of caution on this pattern - the neck band is cut on the bias. The instructions tell you to stay stitch the edge and also suggest interfacing. I thought the Chartreuse Floral had enough body without the interfacing and forgot to stay stitch. My neck piece definitely stretched! A good steaming helped it to go back into place, but it definitely isn't perfect, so don't skip the stay stitching or the interfacing! I loved how this little dress turned out and hope that Camila does as well!
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