She's Gone Country (PR&P Week 3 Challenge)

Since I'm on a roll and sewing up a storm I figured I'd challenge myself and sew something for PR&P's week 3 challenge.  The theme for week 3 is details so I decided to try making pintucks and design a dress for the baby.  I did have more than one "make it work" moment with this dress...originally it was going to be all seersucker and have pearl snaps.  I should have known that since seersucker is textured that the pintucks wouldn't really show but I learned the hard way.  I didn't want to re-cut a new dress, so I looked through my stash and found some scraps of chambray that I could use for the front bodice. I thought if I used the chambray and added pearl snaps that I could make a cute western dress, but I couldn't get the pearl snaps to stay when I tried to attach them.  Luckily I did have some regular snaps on hand to use...I sure wish the pearl ones would have worked!  I added a little eyelet ruffle to make flutter sleeves since I thought it looked so plain without the pearl snaps.

The dress was made using the Lucy Dress Pattern by Owly Baby.  This pattern was super easy and a snap to sew.  I really want to make some more of these little dresses, they look so darn cute!  Also, since this pattern includes instructions on how to make the dress reversible, the possibilities are endless!

The inspiration for my dress came from this blouse by Lauren Moffatt and this dress by Madchen (which is also by Lauren Moffatt):

                                                                              Source: laurenmoffatt.net via Ashley on Pinterest

 

                                                                         Source: anthropologie.com via Ashley on Pinterest

I liked the off center placket and the pintuck details with the snap closure.  The Lucy Dress pattern doesn't include pintucks in it's pattern so I took a short cut and added pintucks to my fabric before I cut it.  I got the idea from the new fabric collection, Rick Rack and Ribbons, by Robert Kaufman.  It all worked out just fine after I figured out that I needed to use a smaller twin needle and adjust the tension on my machine.  As for the snaps, I only put them at the top of the dress so the baby has room to move around (just in case she's not walking by the time she wears the dress).

p.s. - Bonus points if you know where the title of this post is from!