#31 Doll Sundress: McCalls 5554

My daughter and I worked on this together. She traced and cut pattern pieces. I did the stitching. It was for her best friend's birthday. My daughter picked the fabric from my stash--it came from a dress my daughter wore as a baby. The best part is that it had a ruffle on the hem already, so we used it.

Good Pattern, I will use again. Three notable things:
1) I might shorten the straps half an inch or so next time--it seemed a little long.

2) Attaching the back yoke and facing is not intuitive. Move slowly at this point, and pin and turn to check to see if it's going on in the right direction before sewing. Or use the seam ripper.

3) I cut the front dress piece a little crazy. The pattern indicated to cut on the fold--but since I wanted to preserve the ruffle at the hemline, my angle was not the same as the angle indicated. It resulted in a fuller dress--and perhaps longer? I would like to make it again cutting the pattern as written just to see the difference in the shape.

We bought a white T to go underneath.
My daughter said that she "snuck" the outfit onto her friend's American Girl Doll during the party. I wish I could have seen it.

New skills: Snaps! So easy.
Date started: 4/28 (My part started then. My daughter traced a long time ago).
Date complete: 4/29

As always, the best part was working together on it. When she went to bed last night, there was still a fair amount of work to do. She said, "At least you don't have to do the hem at the bottom." Fun to observe her sewing vocabulary and experience growing.

I faced a couple of frustrations during this dress. I overcame it by moving on to another section of the dress. Later, when I'd experienced success elsewhere, I felt renewed energy to approach it again.

I thought a lot about some of my other "started" projects. Perhaps I need to pick them up again and find an area I can work on now. Oh how I love a completed project!