Testing the Block Party dress

When I saw a call for testers for the Block Party dress from Mandy K designs I immediately loved the color blocking design (very appropriately named dress). I applied and was one of the lucky ones to test. I was assigned a size 4, my middle daughter's chest is a centimeter smaller than the size table prescribes for a size 4, as suggested in the excellent instructions, I took of a centimeter from the bodice pattern. The dress is for woven fabrics and my daughter still has some movement freedom around her chest. She can grown a bit more width wise (therefore I also left some extra length). When you put on the closure you can overlap a bit more so that you have exactly the fit you want.

Although the design is already very nice, I did make some small adjustments (of course). The things I did, that were not in the instructions, were adding piping to the front (I didn't have enough to also do the bottom but more on fabric later), I added pockets, went for a velcro closing and I redrew the sides of the dress to not have side seams (easily done in a size 4 when you kid doesn't have a waist, for sizes 6 and up you will have to angle your pattern pieces which makes it only suitable for some fabrics)

The fabric is from Kokette Katinka, I won it (among a lot of others prizes) last month in one of my (Dutch speaking) Facebook groups with my Lion attack shirt. I received both these fabrics (one meter from the green and half a meter from the light blue circles) and two meter of bias tape. I presume Astrid, the owner of the shop, thought they would match together because I decided they were the perfect combination for this dress. The salvage of the fabrics learned me that they are from the brand Little Darling.

I put a cord in the bias to turn it into piping. I just hadn't enough to also do piping on the entire bottom part. I did use the remaining bias to finish bottom hem (no picture but here I did the same) and I used 30 centimeter from the circle fabric to reach the full length. One of the other testers used velcro for closing and I thought this would be great for kids that are still growing. With velcro you can adjust the size better to your needs and the velcro is also easily removed and sewn back a little to the right, with snaps that isn't possible. Buttons with buttonholes are also great for readjusting of course, but the velcro really keeps the entire line of fabric in its place.

The pockets are from the Hide and Seek dress. Sewing on the piping was a bit of a challenge on the curves. The seams therefore do not match, but I was not in the mood to redo them, only in close up it shows, and usually she is moving anyway.

The dress released yesterday evening and is on sale until Monday June 8. This dress is also perfect for making every day princess dresses. The other testers made some amazing Rapunzel and Allice in Wonderland inspired dresses!

You might be wondering what my daughter has on her head. I tried to make a head band. I took some wire and turned fabric around it. It worked quite well but it would have been better if I measured my daughter's head, now it was a bit short, and if I also should have fixated the beginning (I only did the end) as you can see on the pictures it came loose a bit.

Especially my Dutch readers seemed to like my bloopers last week (my husband, who is Hungarian, usually jokes about the fact that the Dutch speaking population loves self irony). So, I am happy to show you three more outtakes. Since a few months I am really trying to shoot in M. One of the perks is that you can choose you focus point. When I started this shoot, my daughter was very cooperative but my focus was off, see her nice blurry smile and the sharp grass?

When I realized my focus was off and adjusted, my daughters patience was gone, see how sharp her disapproving features are when she realized she was cold?

 What is happening there...? Lets take a look and just take off in the middle of the shoot!

I love to hear what you think of my creations. Feel free to leave a comment in the language you prefer (although Google translate might have to assist me if you choose something different than English, German, Dutch or Hungarian).