Thursday, April 9, 2015

Oliver+S Badminton Dress for Easter

Warning: I am not responsible for the cuteness overload in this post!

A few weeks ago I spoke with Organic Cotton Plus about doing a blog post/project involving their fabrics. I first heard about OCP a while back and even ordered (free!) swatches. I was impressed with their quality and jumped at the chance to work with them. After browsing the website and agonizing over the options (printed interlock for baby clothes! pink batiste for summer blouses! dragon poplin for...anything!) I ended up with two cuts of muslin and some cotton ribbon. I planned to make an Oliver+S Badminton Dress for AB, my 3 year old.


Organic Cotton Plus shipped FAST (like, two days!) and before long I had my goodies in-hand. Let me tell you, this is not your average muslin-making-muslin. Organic fabric truly does mean better quality.


Both cuts of fabric are SO SOFT. I prewashed, of course, and also prewashed the hand-dyed cotton ribbon per the OCP website (by hand with a little detergent in the bathroom sink). AB's closet is almost entirely knit fabrics. She's pretty picky about what she wears. If she doesn't like it, it comes off and I'll find it crumpled up in a corner of her room. But I'm happy to say that she wore this dress all day on Easter and never once threatened to take it off!


The colors are so vibrant in person, I don't think this photo does them justice.


I made one Badminton Dress about two years ago (blogged here) and it was always way too big. For the life of me, I couldn't find that dress to test the sizing now, so I made a quick muslin of the size 18-24m again since that was what size I already had traced. It was still too big through the chest, and too short. The final garment has 3" added to the length and 1 1/2" removed from both CF and CB. To remove circumference around the chest without losing it around the knees, I used the same method I typically employ for my own narrow shoulder adjustment (tutorial here). I made no adjustments to the yoke since the bodice is gathered into it. A little less width in the bodice just meant less gathering.


That is a LOT more fitting than I typically feel like doing, but one of the nice things about this pattern is how simple the bodice is. The yoke/flutter sleeve is pretty fiddly, but the overall effect is lovely and definitely worth it.


The scalloped hem is pretty darn cute, too!


The fabrics coordinated beautifully and were oh-so-easy to sew. I don't work with wovens much, but every time I do I appreciate how much easier they are to sew than knits. Especially cotton, which presses and behaves so nicely.


Speaking of cotton, the ribbon is about eight million times better than any poly junk I've bought before. It was easy to fold it over twice and "hem" it to prevent fraying.



Inside

I'm so glad I had the opportunity to work with Organic Cotton Plus and try out their fabrics. I'm impatiently tapping my toes waiting for this bike interlock to be available for some sort of baby garment. Check out their website for beautiful fabrics as well as knitting supplies and all natural vegetable dyes. They even have a wedding sale going on now!

Hope everyone had a Happy Easter!


*I received the fabric and ribbon for free in exchange for this review. My choice of project and all opinions are my own!

2 comments:

  1. AB is adorable and so is her lovely dress - I am going to be ordering some swatches from Organic Cotton, thank you for this review.

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