Ada’s princess fabric
My twin grand-kiddos live a good distance away and that’s why we’ll often use FaceTime to talk. Late one afternoon after closing hours they rang. Ada and Wesley visited the studio in person recently and during that visit I showed them some of the fabrics I thought they’d like. Having youngsters back in our lives I am naturally quite interested in juvenile fabrics and we carry everything from frog fabric to space animals.
On our call, Ada asked me specifically to show her the Anna the Princess fabric. She has a Princess Anna doll from the movie Frozen that she’s particularly fond of. “Could you make me a dress Gran???”
“Sure,” said I. What are Grans for after all? Wesley, following her lead, also wanted a dress! He remembered the Spider-Man fabrics we had. I assured him I’d make him something as well.
Building Block Dress Pattern Book
I’ve had a pattern book for sale at the shop that’s intrigued me for some time and decided to give it a try. The book is called Building Block Dresses by Oliver & S.
It gives you a basic dress pattern with a range of sizes, six months to size 12, and with it, you can change sleeves, silhouettes, pockets, hems, and necklines. Hundreds of different variations can be made with this one book. For the price, it’s a true bargain.
As author Liesl Gibson suggests, I chose to make the basic dress for Ada as a first attempt. After that, I’ll try other variations.
The book is easy to follow with excellent illustrations. There are lots of great photos of kids wearing the various styles of dresses. I used tracing paper taped together to trace Ada’s size 5 dress but next time I will use the roll of examination paper used in doctors’ offices that I obtained.
I did have to widen the sleeve band facing strip to 1 ¼” wide but other than that, the pattern worked up beautifully. I’m sure Ada will love it.
I have a confession to make, and maybe you already spotted it. All my ‘Anna’s’ are facing sideways! Drat and double drat. I’m thinking Ada won’t notice this cutting faux pas though.
With that boo boo still fresh in my mind I was happy to see that Wesley’s Spider-Man fabric is a
fabric toss. That means that all the figures in it face every which way. I can’t possibly go
wrong with his shorts and shirt, I hope!
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