mama urchin

Katie needed a dress for her choir performance at church last Sunday. At about 4:00 I was able to sneak into my sewing room for about an hour to make her one. This is not a method that I advocate but if you are in a rush and need a dress I highly recommend going the raglan sleeve/peasant top route. I have a whole bunch of this tablecloth print that I bought for about $1 a yard at Joann’s sometime after Christmas last year that I knew would be a dress, someday. If you’ve never used a tablecloth print before it’s printed on the fabric to be made into a tablecloth. So in this case, there is a brown band and a winter scene along each selvedge edge. I wanted to use that edge as the bottom of Katie’s dress and the cuff of her sleeves so I had to cut my pattern pieces sideways. The bodice and sleeves were based on pattern #18 from Ottobre 03/07. I shortened the dress length to be a bodice length, then I added a gathered skirt. For the sleeves I increased the length of the pattern piece to be long sleeved and gathered them at the cuff. We added the ribbon sash to make it a little more Christmas-y. Next time I think I’ll try to start earlier but it’s good to know in a pinch my girl can look pretty cute in a jiffy.