Ashley Kidson Summer Dress

Following my fabric splurge a couple of months ago, I finally have pictures to show of the first finished item made from this fabric - the Ashley Kidson summer dress.

I used the Flower Girl dress pattern from Weekend Sewing: More Than 40 Projects and Ideas for Inspired Stitchingby Heather Ross.  It's a lovely design for a strappy, fitted, lined bodice with calf length gathered skirt....but....there are no fastenings in the bodice.  By holding up the pattern piece against my daughter, it was perfectly obvious that once made up in a non-stretch fabric (as suggested in the book), there would be no way to actually get the thing on, as it is meant to be a close fit against the body.  Fundamental issue, n'est-ce pas?  

The instructions are the type where you dubiously follow step by step, and somehow with the last "turn it the right way out" you miraculously have a lined bodice, complete with straps and no raw edges to be seen.  Rather than hurt my brain trying to work out how to incorporate a zip into the side seam, I decided to redraw the pattern piece a bit wider instead and see what happened.  It came out too big.  Of course.  The extra width of the bodice coupled with the longer length of the skirt just made it look like the dress belonged to an older sister.

Time for an emergency rescue.  One that didn't involve a lot of unpicking of stitches.  Maybe one that didn't involve any unpicking *gasp*.  I decided to try a little smocked panel - 4" wide by 6 rows deep (3/8" apart, ie. using the edge of the presser foot as a guide) on the back of the bodice, and guess what?  It worked perfectly!  In case you're not sure how to do this, simply hand wind the shirring elastic onto your bobbin, stretching it slightly as you wind.  Then sew some parallel lines with the elastic bobbin and your usual top thread using a straight stitch.  Dampen slightly and iron to shrink the stitches up, then marvel at your lovely smocking!

Finally I added a detachable flower corsage (the circles of satin with singed edges method that you have no doubt seen in a million craft tutorials) and the dress is all ready.  Bring on the British sunshine please!