OOP Simplicity 5169 dress for Matilda

Matilda had some fun during my last fabric shopping trip in Melbourne.

As well as liking colourful  fabrics Matilda loves metallics.
She found some lush, bronze linen-ish stuff in the $2 bin. I let her have 3m.

She chose the fabric, I chose the pattern.
I have wanted to sew this dress for ages. Tildy loved the sleeves.
She is ALL about the sleeves.

As I had a lot of fabric I cut the full length dress.

I was also able to #ninjacut a Class Picnic blouse

After consulting with Tildy we took a deep hem and finished it just below the knees.
I hemmed it by hand to play up the bespoke feel.
I left all the fabric in the hem so that it falls nicely and if she wants to go as a medieval princess to a costume party I can easily let it down.

The sleeves are spectacular and Google tells me they are known as lantern sleeves. 

Tildy was very keen to have the dress fitted at the waist.
As the waist pieces are sew to the bodice before sewing the side seam, we fitted as we sewed. It was not hard to gather the skirt a little tighter to match our adjustments. 
The waist piece was only a single layer, interfaced. I dislike bare interfacing on the inside of a garment so I double layered AND interfaced.
This ended up being quite bulky at the zipper installation. Next time I would omit interfacing in the seam allowances.
The zipper finish is not the neatest but I was loathe to unpick it as the fabric was reasonably fragile.
I comfort myself that is is hard to spot a moving target.

For all its glamor it was a very straight forward sew.
The sleeves are finished with an elastic cuff.
I topstitched the seams to encourage the fabric to behave but I rather like the finish, it almost looks like self piping.

The high collar is rectangular and self facing.

The silhouette is to die for!

~Tildy's Verdict~
(To be advised)
*
*
*
*

~My Verdict~
I absolutely adored this sew.
I would have never chosen metallic linen for a nine year olds dress but it works.
The fabric has just enough body to hold the shape of the sleeves but it is very light. Matilda has worn it on some very warm days and says it is has good air flow (the cloth has quite a loose weave)
So far, it has washed up very well and I think it will transition nicely into Autumn with her gorgeous 'Aunty Sarvi' knitted vest over it.

Trixie and Tildy in there beautiful Sarvi vests.

Thanks for reading.... xx N