Thursday, October 15, 2009

The Village Frock

Sienna and I are off to little Miss ElleBow's princess birthday party today! I made Elle this dress using Sugar City's Village Frock pattern. It is the first one I've made and I am totally in love with it.

Sienna tested out the fit before we wrapped it up. I included extra fabric because I am sure Elle's mom will want to make some cute matching hair accessory to go with it.


I've never sewn so many gathering stitches in my life. I am a very impatient seamstress and it was a little hard to stay focused.


I used a cute lightweight corduroy with a butterfly print. I was up late covering buttons and sewing them on.


The gathered sleeves are so fabulous and give the frock a vintage feel.


I first found the pattern through Dana (check her adorable versions out) and ordered it right away I thought it was so cute.

I can finally take it off my "to do" list in my sidebar now. Now I've got to make Sienna one of her own!




We always wrap our birthday presents in eco-friendly brown bags and I used leftover scraps from the dress for the tag:

45 comments:

  1. So cute! I have a few things on my to do list too! One is to finish the Sienna Dress pattern I kind of started, LOL, and also to make the sundress you did a tutorial for. I finally found some really cute cheap $1 fabric to try the pattern out on first before I use my good stuff :)

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  2. Adorable. The dress and model!!

    XOXO

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  3. Yes, very cute... I have to add to my list too!

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  4. Super cute and I love the fabric you used. Will have to try it when my little girl is bigger:)

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  5. Super cute...love that fabric...you are a wonderful sewer...way to go!
    I have never made any clothes, but it is on my list for the girls!

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  6. OK that is just stunning. You must have worked forever on that! Covered buttons?? I didn't even know you could do that yourself!

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  7. I love everyhing about this dress from the fabric to the covered buttons. So pretty!

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  8. Oh, my...it's adorable! I'm working on a dress for Avery using that SAME fabric (using the Leila & Ben Sweet dress I might add)! I love it!

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  9. Awesome dress! Sienna looks so pretty modeling it! Have fun at the Birthday Party!

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  10. I made a dress yesterday with that same fabric. It was awesome. The dress... I used a butterick pattern and I don't know what they were thinking. I dont' know many two year olds who are FAT but the pattern was super wide. I made it while the kid was sleeping so I didn't fit it to her. Dang. Guess I have to do some unpicking!

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  11. Love this dress. I need to make one for my girl. I bought the pattern but lost the motivation once I saw all the gathers...thanks for the little push.

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  12. oh this frock is so very cute! I love your fabric choice!

    -crissy

    http://crissybell.blogspot.com

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  13. Oh that fabric is perfect for that isn't it? I love corduroy...very excellent skills you have there. Nice job :)

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  14. OH my gosh! I'm in LOOOOVE with that dress. Sooo adorable. I could never make that! Thanks for popping by my blog! :)

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  15. OMG! Fabulous!

    Gap had a print similar to that last year. I wish the shirt still fit my daughter. And I have a major crush on corduroy.

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  16. Super cute! I'll add that pattern to my ever growing list of ones I want to try LOL.

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  17. Ashley, it's adorable! I LOVE your version. The fabric choice is so perfect with Sienna's curly hair. I love it.
    Thanks for the little shout out :)

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  18. LOVE IT!!!

    I went right to the site and bought the pattern.

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  19. With all those gathers, I would not have considered using corduroy but it turned out wonderfully. Nice job!

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  20. Will you come to my girls' bday party?? :) What a beautiful gift-so special. You did a wonderful job and I love the fabric!

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  21. oh i heart it so much! when i grow up i want to be just like you and dana with your awesome frocks for little girls! you are awesome!

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  22. Holy stitches batman! That is FANTASTIC! Wow. I'm really amazed right now. I can't even show you the dresses I made from your pattern. Let's just stay we're still in the "you can wear it as a nightgown" phase. My daughters are not amused.

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  23. I love it. I'm working up the nerves to tackle this pattern.

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  24. The dress is amazing Ashley!! Elle opened it after everyone left and it's beautiful! So glad to see you attempt this pattern because it's just perfect for the winter. I'm so excited for Elle to wear it and I'll be sure to take lots of pictures. Love you guys!

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  25. Ashley, that dress is stunning! Such gorgeous print, well done! I still have this pattern in my to-do list, not sure when I'll have enough courage to sew it :)

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  26. Love the print and your model is just ADORABLE!!!

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  27. I have this on my to do list too! Those two Sugar Sugar City Journal ladies are so creative!

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  28. Ooops, and I forgot to mention, that yours is totally cute! Love the fabric choice.

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  29. this is seriously the cutest thing I have ever seen!!!!! Will they be for sale? good to see ya at the party and thanks for the AMAZING photos.
    Amber

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  30. Oh wow. It turned out SO cute! You are amazing. Oh, and you probably already know this since you are the master seamstress, but I'll share anyhow in hopes of making future gathers easier. I took a couple of sewing classes in college and we had to do a number of samples of different sewing techniques, gathers being probably the biggest pain in the patootie. But one of the tricks my professor taught us was to throw out the directions for gathers that patterns always give you and instead sew three rows of stitches to use for gathering at 1/4", 1/2", and 3/4". This helps the gathers to be more even (and stable) from the start and saves a lot of time wrestling with unruly gathers. You end up having to take out the stitches at 3/4" after you've sewn the finished seam, but they're easy to take out and, in my opinion, much easier than dealing with frustrating gathers. I just finished a blessing dress for my daughter that included a lot of gathers and I was quite genuinely surprised that it turned out so good- no puckers at all! I could hardly believe my eyes. And all thanks to the three rows of gathers. Hooray!

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  31. i remember this from dana's blog too...cool to see it in a different material. beautiful...just beautiful!

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  32. This dress rocks. I need to find someone little to sew clothes for!

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  33. Yeah! So beautiful! I love the bright corduroy fabric! Your daughter's gorgeous as well!

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  34. So... now you know that you and your village frock making skills are going to get invited to a zillion more birthday parties right? Like one in December, March and May... at my house.
    Just saying.
    That dress is crazy cute. LOVE IT in an unhealthy way.
    Wondering if my impatient ADD could pull it off.
    The fabric is perfect.
    By the way, how annoying and painful is it to make those little buttons!!!

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  35. I would LOVE to have you come to my daughters b-day party ...{she wears a size 6} :)!
    Just Kidding --but this is Beautiful! I may have to try it out except I am a fairly basic seamstress! You didn't mention the difficulty level??

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  36. visited your etsy shop. love the t-shirt twirl dresses.

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  37. I have a yard of that corduroy and I can't wait to make me an Autumn purse from it.

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  38. Beautiful! Wish you were my mom and could make ME pretty dresses like that!

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  39. Can you share what fabric that is you used?

    Thanks!

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  40. I love this dress...I bought the pattern because of it :)

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  41. Hi Ashley,
    Sienna with this Dress ist beautiful and adorable!!
    Please Look this http://www.piccolocuore.blogspot.com/
    Tanti saluti dal Italia !!
    Davida

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  42. Hello! I too have fallen in love and can't find this pattern ANYWHERE!! I'm actually a follower of your blog already and was delighted to find this older post while searching for the pattern. If you are interested in selling or allowing a stranger to borrow it, please let me know!!

    meggan.wehmeyer@gmail.com

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