Sewing Project: Badminton Dress

I'm not participating in the Fabric Stash contest over at Pattern Review, but it seems I've been working my way through old fabric these days anyhow. I ordered fabric and a pattern for a Badminton Dress almost a year ago, and it's taken me until now to get it done.

The fabric I ordered is also one from the Oliver+S arena. It's cotton and it's from The Ladies Stitching Club line. I got mine from Fabric.com.

I have a hard time matching prints, so it helped me that someone else had already coordinated these! The dress looks exactly as I envisioned it, which is weird for me. The picture I form in my mind rarely turns out just how I thought. Maybe my mind is getting smarter?

It's wonderful, adorable, looks expensive, I love it! Here's the sad part. I made this as a special Father's Day dress for AB, and it's way too big. I'm having a lot of issues fitting her lately. You'd think it'd be easy to fit a child, but I think it's easier making clothes for myself! My body has been the same since 1998 (that's not such a good thing). I thought for sure that during AB's last doctor's visit that they'd tell me she was in some crazy percentile for height, but no dice. She's 16 months old...and none of her 18 month RTW clothes are long enough. The 18 month sewing patterns are too big. What's the deal?? There's almost no point in figuring it out because once I do, she'll grow some more. She was being super not helpful while I tried to take photos yesterday, so here's a crappy example of how loose/baggy it is around the shoulders and chest:

I think she has the chest of a 12 month old, the length of a 2T, and the head size of a 5 year old. And yet she looks normal...weird. And yes, I should have known all this information ahead of time by checking the measurements on the envelope. I knew it would be about an inch too big, and I thought that would be okay. But I didn't account for scale, and an inch on a baby vs. on ME makes a big difference. Now I know.

But enough of that. I adore Oliver+S patterns, plain and simple. Coming off my frustrating experience with my Sewaholic Thurlows, it was a pleasant change to go to the overly detailed and helpful O+S Badminton Dress. The yoke/shoulders of this dress aren't complicated, but you do have to be precise. The instructions warned me when I should be careful with my stitching (because it would show on the outside) and encouraged me to keep going when the dress looked like a big mess.

And if wonderful instructions weren't enough, the unique details on their patterns should sell you immediately. The scalloped hem is adorable, and the ribbon casing on the front is nice too (ribbon is from Hart's Fabrics, also ordered a zillion years ago specifically for this design--and what do you know, it's in stock!). The other thing I liked about this pattern is that there are only two seams to finish (each side seam).

For Father's Day, I thought about whipping up a blouse version in a smaller size, but ultimately decided on another CKC Peasant Dress (I finally learned the real name of the pattern!) and I'll blog about it soon. I think you'll understand why it's special when you see it. I see more Badminton blouses and dresses in my future, it's hard to resist that cute ruffle on the sleeve (it's only an oval folded in half! brilliant!).

Did you do any Father's Day sewing? Am I the only one who can't fit my own child?!?

Yesterday I signed up for Beginner Serging on Craftsy, and I'm so excited! My serger thread also came in the mail. Kismet. Did you know that there's a leaderboard of top free sewing patterns on Craftsy? Me neither! My serger and I may have to sew our way through them! Patterns are free with registration, so get cracking :)