Inspinration: Sahara Top and dress release

Yesterday, Bella Sunshine* released the Sahara top and dress*. This quick sew is a perfect staple for your daughter's wardrobe. It has multiple sleeve lengths ( from long to sleeveless), so you can dress your girl in this twirly pattern all year round. The pattern comes in dress and top length and I sewed them both.

The eye catcher of this dress is of course the back. The low scoop sits both beautifully and comfortably. My eldest was so enthusiastic about the dress, that she kept it on after making pictures while we went to an indoor play house. I asked her after wards if the dress was still comfortable and it was, she even would have slept in it. The fully lined bodice is hugging her in just the right way.

I bought both fabrics for this blue dress a long long time ago and there was about 50 centimeter of each. I had once had planned to sew a skirt in the paisley like Hilco print, but I somehow lost interest in jersey skirts for myself. The hearts are a lovely quality fabric, but it simply was not doing it anymore for me. I could not imagine anything with it. I had made a pile of fabric that I did not really have a purpose for and these two landed on each other on the pile. They were laying there for a few weeks and than, when I was searching for fabric for this dress, it sparked something in my brain, these to rejects might go together beautifully!

On a mission to quickly sew these two while I was inspired, I wanted them in this dress. But there was a problem, there was actually no way that I could form a circle skirt with the hearts in the size that my eldest needed. Even while cutting the circle in two (and adding seam allowance to the sides) this fabric was just not wide enough to have two half a circles next to each other. Sewing is like jigsaw 2.0 for me anyway, so I did solve it, by simply cutting some extra puzzle pieces.

This is how I ended up cutting the skirt and I filled the "holes" in the skirt with leftovers. To fix the curved hole, I even had to sew two leftover together to create a big enough piece. Even though I did not do any pattern matching, some hearts are even in a 90 degree angle, I expected it to be almost invisible in the final dress, and I was right. Due to the busy fabric and the circle skirt hanging down it worked out perfectly. If you look closely on the pictures, you will spot the extra seams, it is like a nice treasure hunt. Next time I might do it like this, but this time I of course already cut the first half, before I realized it really was not going to work.

The official pattern has a skirt cut in one piece, so no side seams at all. That is why the pattern does not have pockets. Mine does has side seams, so I asked permission to add pockets. I did not have enough from the heart fabric anymore to cut pockets, so the small bodice fabric gives a nice extra design feature. Normally the side pockets would not show, but seeing she just had her hands in them, they were pulled out a bit in these pictures.

I often try to sew multiple versions of one pattern. I was sewing with this dots fabric this weekend, and I thought the last scraps would make a cute top for my youngest. So this was in time, the third project I cut from that fabric. The other project will be on the blog on Monday though. I paired this cute top with the simple version of the bow tie leggings*. My girl is small and, so I used the size 2 on her (she is almost 4), but I forgot to realize that a size two is designed for diapers. The leggings therefore are a bit loose around her bottom, but they are super comfortable.

The Sahara* is now on sale for $5.50 until Wednesday 15th, so grab this great staple pattern and make your girl twirl. Did you already download your free copy of the Reagan Raglan there? That one is available for kids as well.

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). If you buy anything through my affiliate links (*), I get a small commission (the price stays the same for you), I am very grateful for everything that feeds my fabric addiction.