Sandy Ruffle Dress Test

Since Christmas the testing world seemed to have exploded a bit!! Or a lot. It’s like all the designers were just waiting for the holidays to be done. 🙂 Well, I have a hard time saying no and decided to tuck a few into my busy days.

This test is, surprise, surprise, another Simple Life Pattern Company make. It’s the Sandy Ruffle Dress and as I’m doing my best to sew for my big girl (who actually does need clothes) I went ahead and signed up for this.

This release marks the start of a HUGE anniversary sale so take this link over to the site and go shopping.   40% off all patterns (use code HAPPYTHREE) except the new releases which are 20% off. You won’t get a deal like this till next year.

Jessie from Little Feather Fabrics kindly donated this gorgeous Art Gallery Fabric for this post. She also played the part of my eyes as I gave suggestions and she checked out how they looked together before sending them over. Join her FB group for the latest on all the sales and new fabrics arriving!

I wanted something suitable for the style of the dress and not too “little girl” as this girl IS growing up. In fact, I think this photo shoot has her looking the most grown-up I’ve seen her!

Fabrics are: Bumble Buzz by Maureen Cracknell’s Garden Dreamer collection and the Petite Dots Creme by Amy Sinibaldi.

I think the first thing I needed to consider was the ruffle around the neck. I was concerned about the age appropriateness, but you’ll notice that it completely works. It’s not a wide, crazy ruffle. It’s simple and just enough. (You should know that after these pics, the width of the neck ruffle was lengthened just a bit. Some will notice that it needed just a bit for it to sit properly on the shoulders. It’s been taken care of!)

The pain of sewing for these girls as they grow is the amount of fabric they need!!! Especially when you have a gathered skirt like this. I used a full 2 yards of the Bumble Buzz fabric and then a bit of the Dots that you can see wasn’t a whole lot.

When cutting this amount of fabric for those ruffles, I wanted to make sure I was using every inch of my fabric. For example, that bottom ruffle on this size 10 called for 5 strips at 37″ each. Instead of cutting those and having a 6″ strip left over up the side of my fabric, I calculated it out. 5 x 37 = 185″. Divide that by my fabric width. 185/44″ = 4.2 strips. I’m not super “by the book” when I sew and I’m all about not wasting fabric, so I cut 4 strips of fabric and ignored that little .2. The top two tiers are the same length (depth, not width) so I added all those inches together for those two tiers and did the same kind of math.

Of course you don’t want to be left with no room for the larger bodice pieces so I cut those first from the side of the fabric, one on top of the other instead of side-by-side, so I was sure I had those taken care of.

Isn’t this fabric colour amazing? You might have seen my IG post a week or so ago. As I was sewing this fabric I just couldn’t get it out of my mind to use a metallic thread for top-stitching. It’s pretty much the exact colour of bees and I LOVE how it looks in person.

While I don’t strive to be known as “the one who talks about training bras all the time”, I have noticed that there is a group of sewists that want to continue to sewing for girls even after they grow out of size 8! Can I hear an Amen? Options are limited though. Can I hear a BOO! Just kidding. 😛 I’m doing my best to speak for those of us in this predicament.

I was concerned about this pattern for this exact reason. But can you see it? It’s there! I’m impressed with how this dress IS wearable for the older girls as well as well as all those cuties under size 8. If I lifted the neck ruffle (and why, right?), you would see the straps. I don’t see that as something to worry oneself over. After all, how many bra straps do you see as you walk around the mall. No longer are they something to be hidden! (Yes, there are definite instances that a line HAS been crossed!! We won’t go into that.)

There you have it. I’ll leave you with that along with, as usual, a few more pics because I can’t make a big deal about doing a photo shoot and then show you only 2 or 3!

Enjoy!

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