Sunday 31 December 2017

Seashore Sundress & a GIVEAWAY

My last handmade thing to hit the bog for 2017 is a new dress for A.

The Seashore Sundress is one of the earlier Oliver + S patterns but one that I've never made until now.  You know what I'm going to say next, right? Why, oh why did I wait? It's such
a lovely little pattern!


I waited so long in fact that she has outgrown the smaller size range (6m to 4 years) and we're straight into the bigger pattern with a size 6. She measures with the width of a six but the height of about a size 8 so I added 3/4" in length to the body of the dress and another 3/4" to the hem of the skirt. I think it came out just right!


If I'm honest, the main reason I never sewed this dress is that when it's hot enough in Australia to wear a dress like this, then it's unwise to have so much skin exposed to the sun. But then there are days when it's so jolly hot you don't even go outside, so a pretty, bare shouldered dress is OK after all.

The fabric is a very light, semi-sheer cotton that I bought from The Fabric Store quite a few years ago. I think it may have been intended for the Fairy Tale dress pattern as there was more than my standard 1m-cut-for-kids-clothes, but I liked the look of the scalloped print matching with the Seashore moniker.

Little pockets  -yay!
Of course the fabric did give me the challenge of matching the print across all those seams. I was confident I could do the horizontal line part OK, but to get the curves to be at the same point in their wave form across each seam would be impossible. The solution to trick the eye away from the slight mismatch of the waves was to throw in some flat piping along every seam.


For the smaller sizes (size chart here) the pattern also comes with a cute pair of bloomer style knickers to wear underneath. Given the way this kid cartwheels non stop, and seems to be upside down as often as she is right way up, I should probably try drafting up the pattern and making her a matching pair!


In my quest to own every Oliver + S pattern in paper form I had accidentally bought the paper Seashore Sundress pattern in the smaller size range twice. After I realised my mistake it took many months of searching to track down the paper pattern in the larger size.


I think that pose says "Get to the point, mum!"...

So, I have a Seashore Sundress (6m to 4) paper pattern to give away as a little New Year's gift to a lucky blog reader. I'm happy to post it to anywhere in the world.  Just leave a comment below, and to help you think of something to say, how about telling me about the pattern that you left on the shelf for ages but then fell in love with - or at least the most recent one of those as I seem to do that very often.
(Please make sure you leave an email address so I can contact the winner regarding postage)

Now, have a happy new year! And that's an order!


36 comments:

  1. I recently re-found my copy of the Bimaa hoodie- which is always a staple when I find it again- ha!

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    1. Ha ha, I'm like that with the Flashback Skinny T - I fold those PDF patterns away then can never find them again.

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  2. Thanks for sharing your make! For me, it is Made by Rae's Geranium. I sewed a couple a year ago, and loved how it looked on my girls. Being a beginner sewist, I want to try different patterns to learn new skills etc so it was only recently that I sewed another 2 Geraniums using its expansion pack. I used flannel this time, a fabric new to me, and I really enjoyed sewing the dresses. I made a number of mistakes with them, but my girls are so proud to wear them, so that is all that matters to me!

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    1. That;s great Mei. The Geranium has sure proved to be an immensely popular pattern. I'm all for experimenting and little mistakes (not the sleeve sewn on upside down type) never get noticed by anyone other than other sewists and we should be polite enough to shut up about it - or laugh along with you. Keep it up, it's addictive I warn you!

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  3. I rediscovered my Oliver + S playtime tunic and leggings just in time for Christmas sewing.
    Bernina830@icloud.com

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    1. Oh I love that pattern. I've only made the dress once but the leggings many, many times. I think the dress might come out for my autumn sewing, it's such an easy wearing, versatile pattern.

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  4. What a darling dress! The fabric is perfect. I’ve just rediscovered Titchy Threads Safari raglan and want to make all the raglan tops!

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    1. Congratulations Jessica. Your comment was picked as the random number to be the winner.
      I love a good raglan too and am still working on finding the perfect raglan shape for me.

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  5. Replies
    1. THanks! Those cheating optical illusions can help so much in sewing!

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  6. As I shall become the grandmother of twin girls in February and then in June to another granddaughter, I am in need of lovely patterns to make for them, and when I saw this so beautifully modelled by your daughter, I thought this would be a good one to use. Many thanks and wishing you a very Happy New Year.

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    1. How exciting. I counted both your comments (there were no rules!) but I'm sorry, even with double the odds your number(s) didn't come up. I hope you enjoy sewing for all these lovely grandkids and I can honestly say that the Oliver + S patterns are worth every cent.

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  7. Super cute!! Happy New Year! Don't count my comment because my 3.5 year old wears a 5/6.

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  8. Mine would be the Grainline Moss Mini...sat around for 5 years before I sewed it, and now it’s a favorite. Thanks for the chance to win!

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    1. Oooh, I'd forgotten about that pattern. I don't own it but I think a denim mini for winter might be on my list this year. Thanks!

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  9. hahaha this girl is so cool! So is her new dress! Make that took me ages? The Family Reunion dress! It has been on my To Sew list for a few years! I means to make it for the big girlie when she was little... Well, the little girlie now has two of them hahaha The little one will look oh so cute in this dress also ;)

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    1. Oh I really need to revisit the Family Reunion. It's another one I haven't made for a few years now and it's so pretty!

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  10. This dress is devine �� longest pattern wait to be honest is most of my stash... but I did have quite a bit of excitement about the Finlayson sweater hoodie and purchased some awesome cat face fleece from spotty... cut it all out... fell pregnant... got distracted... 2 years later it was the best feeling finishing it and it was so bloody simple i kicked myself for not doing it sooner.. .but you know... small person distractions... now all my sewing is for her
    P.s. I'm Tash and my email is njmoyes@gmail.com

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    1. Thanks Natasha. I'll confess to having bought all the Thread Theory paper patterns (they're so beautifully packaged and presented!)and having made only one so far. My bad. The Finlayson Sweater looks like a beaut!

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  11. I'm absolutely loving the Oliver + S Building Block Dress! I'm making my 2 year old daughter a fancy dress to wear to my sister's wedding right now.

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    1. Ha ha, the book that makes every other pattern redundant! Great answer. I have to say I buy very few kids patterns now as I find I can tweak what I have to get the pattern I want and the Building Block Dress Book is the perfect guide for that

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  12. Such a lovely little dress!!
    I've redescovered the Parsley pants (Made by Rae), I've made them so manny times before, but put the pattern away for a while.

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    1. Oh I remember that cute pants pattern. Toddler perfection. I'm sure I had something very similar in corduroy back in the seventies!

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  13. I'm kind of new back to sewing so I don't have a lot of patterns sitting around waiting to be re-discovered! But I'm loving my Oliver and S patterns. I found you through their website and I really enjoy your blog!

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  14. Very pretty dress and clever use of the piping. Another who keeps out of the sun!
    Please don't include me in the pattern draw.

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  15. Help! I'm in even more need than when I first commented, the twin granddaughters will arrive on Friday - it will be by Caesarian on the 19th and I haven't found patterns that I like more than the Oliver & S ones. So many sewers on Instagram seem very pleased with the results - great remmendation! Thanks!

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    1. Oh gosh! I do hope you hit up their big sale last week. Be sure to follow their blog (or Facebook group etc) to hear of sales, but even at full price they're great patterns!

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  16. I was intimidated by the fairytale dress, it sat on my shelf fir months. Until I made it. The most beautiful dress for a little girl.

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    1. Oh me too. I took a while to make that one and it turned out to be such a lovely pattern and nowhere near as intimidating as it looked!

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  17. Where do you buy the paper patterns? They don't stock them at spotlight do they? What a lovely dress : )

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    1. HI Alice, sadly no. For a while Spotlight got their hands on some old stock and were selling them off. It was exciting to find some of the out of print ones sitting there with no one seemingly knowing what treasure they were! The newer patterns are available in paper format from the Oliver + S website (and shipping isn't too bad)as well as a few Australian online retailers. For the older ones that are now out of print you need to scour Ebay and Etsy. Building my complete collection took a while ;)

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  18. I used the new book to fashion a Christmas dress for my granddaughter....it turned out perfect.

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    1. That's great! How satisfying to really make it to design as well as to measure.

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