Scientific Seamstress Reversible A-Line Dress

I've had several different colors of chevron fabric that I purchased at a great bargain price from Ozark Fabric a while ago sitting in my stash, just waiting on the perfect pattern.  As I was looking through my patterns, I realized I've had this Reversible A-line Jumper pattern from Scientific Seamstress forever and I've never sewn it up.

I love that many pattens from Scientific Seamstress include doll sizes.  Chloe needs pretty dresses, too!  If I'm on the fence about purchasing a pattern, included doll sizes will tip me toward spending my money :-)

This pattern includes 1/4" seam allowances, so I got to use one of my favorite feet.

This is a 1/4" foot, and it helps keep my seems consistantly a quarter inch, even at tricky curves and corners.  If you're using a foot like this, make sure you're using a straight stitch!  I've made the mistake of accidentally forgetting to switch back from a zig zag and the noise my machine made was not pleasant.  

I also love using my extended table when sewing with heavy fabric or a lot of fabric.

The extended table makes life easier.  My machine came with this.  If yours didn't you can check if an extended table is available for purchase for your model.

Here are my fabrics all cut out for Jaidyn's dress and Chloe's dress.  Chloe is Jaidyn's Bitty Baby.  My husband laughs when I make them matching outfits.  He loves to tell me that Jaidyn isn't my doll.  He doesn't get it :-)  I would have loved to have matching doll dresses when I was younger, I'm thrilled to be able to make them for my daughter and her favorite doll.  

Whenever I'm making a matching doll dress, I pull out my daughters machine.  She sits in my lap and I put my hands over hers and we sew the little dress together.  She loves it!  Don't worry, she's just posing in this picture, the machine isn't plugged into the wall.  When it's not in use, this machine is up and out of reach.  She sure does love sewing with me, though.  That's Curious George in the background…Jaidyn's favorite show at the moment.  

I absolutely love that little Janome machine.  We bought it at Target for Jaidyn's 3rd birthday.  She'd seen a picture of it online while I was window shopping and asked for it just about every day for 6 months.  I figure even if she can't use it on her own now, if she's still interested in sewing, she can learn on it and use it until she's old enough to buy a bigger machine, and if we take care of this one she can pass it on to her own children.  

The dresses came together very easily, and now that I've made it once, next time will be so much quicker.  I love Scientific Seamstress patterns.  They are very detailed and I highly recommend them for beginners.  

Poppy's Peekaboo Dress

Oh...my...gosh!  If you haven't made the Poppy's Peekaboo Dress by Create Kids Couture, I highly recommend making one. Now. Stop reading this post and go make it...well, maybe finish this post first. Lol.

The girls at CKC really designed a great dress. It's so cute, I just can't get over it!  The sweetheart bodice is different and adorable on a little girl. The double layer peekaboo skirt is just so cool. 

And the back?  I'm a fairly conservative girl. I don't show skin, I don't even like wearing shorts and I normally dress my daughter conservitavely as well. But I love this back. I don't think it shows too much, the skirt starts at the waist so she's covered pretty well. 

Luckily we are in Florida and we still have some warm weather. Our weather is so weird this year!  We had a freeze and then about two days later it was in the 80's. So strange. Point being, she'll get plenty of use out of this dress. 

This picture was taken just for fun. Of course Jaidyn wouldn't take the dress off after our impromptu photo sesh. She's such a sassy little girl!  I put my camera up and her hands went straight to her hips. I have no idea where she gets it from. 

Jaidyn picked her fabric out a while ago. I ordered the Sofia fabric from Bee Quilted and More a couple months ago and Jaidyn keeps taking it out of my fabric stash and draping it around herself. The best part?  Poppy's Peekaboo doesn't take much fabric at all so I have plenty left. I was going to make Coco's Pettiskirt, also from CKC but I think this dress is poofy enough. 

I am a new CKC fan. Everything I make from them looks so complicated when it's done but is so very easy to make. This was actually a quick sew. I had it sewn, pictures taken and my sewing area cleaned up before Landen came home from school. And that's with taking breaks to be a mommy. And Jaidyn and I had time to watch Tangled. Quicker than quick, faster than fast!

Poppy's Peekaboo Dress is available in doll sizes as well!  They are made to fit 18 inch dolls, but the patterns usually fit my daughters 15" American Girl Bitty baby (also known as Chloe). I'll have to make that next.