Sisters in Stripey Sundresses

Sewing for my kids has been pretty minimal the last few months. I told my girls I would make them each a sundress and seeing as how July is just about done, I thought I should get on it. I had these two cuts of striped knit and told them they needed to decide together who was getting each one. They settled that quickly and then I gave them two options for patterns/design. They each picked a different one.

My younger daughter picked the narrow stripe and wanted "a loooong dress." I used a tank top pattern (Ottobre 4/2015#26) and extended it to maxi dress length. Then I followed the same stripe placement scheme as McCall's 6559.

I recently purchased a binder attachment for my Baby Lock serger and thought these would be good dresses for trying it out. I got the basics down, but I have a lot more learning/playing to do. I can get it to work great for wovens, but knits were pretty awful. So, these bindings are done on my regular sewing machine with a double needle (more details here).

The side slits were an afterthought (and they look like it, too - no close-ups of that - yikes!) and were necessary to allow for walking in the dress. When I extended the pattern, I did add some flare, but apparently not enough.

My older daughter's dress also started out as a tank top pattern (Ottobre 3/2015 #25), but she wanted a fuller, shorter skirt. I really like the top part of the dress - the neckline is flattering and interesting.

Same story here with the bindings - done on my regular sewing machine with a double needle. The navy band has a facing, so the shoulder straps are sandwiched between the layers. I added a lightweight interfacing to the band to give it some support.

Due to fabric constraints I had decided to cut the skirt on grain and have the stripes going horizontally across the front of the skirt. When I sewed the skirt front and back together, I liked the chevron pattern at the seam and decided to make the seams center front and center back. It didn't really work that well.

When the skirt is hanging, there is more fabric at center front than at the sides and I looks a little strange. Not bad enough for me to be motivated to rip out that overlocked seam, but still kind of bad.

The back view isn't as bad because the fabric has to spread out enough to go over her bum. The back length of the bodice should have been shortened, but I thought it would look odd with the prominent stripes so I left it.

The girls are happy with their dresses and - Bonus! - they each have a sweater to match so these can be worn for a bit into the fall. Good news, because if I'm as quick about sewing fall clothes as I was with these, the girls are going to be chilly.