The Sullivan Dress

As soon as I found out I was having a little girl I started combing through patterns and fabric, dreaming about all the little dresses I would make. I didn't have time while pregnant to accomplish much, but did manage to sew her blessing dress, as well as another little dress (both with Made By Rae's geranium pattern.)

I've finally been able to carve out a little time for sewing recently, though! I took Beginning Clothing Construction at BYU where I gained a good foundation, and a woman in our stake here has been giving some sewing classes these past few months which have been really terrific. (Including her first lesson where I finally opened up my machine and cleaned it for the first time - my goodness it was disgusting!)

I was fortunate enough to be chosen as a tester for Sew Much Ado's Sullivan Dress pattern, and I had such a good time! It was fun to see a little of the behind the scenes process in how a pattern is tweaked and perfected, and the design of the dress is just so, so darling. The shape of the little sleeves is perfection and harmonizes with the scalloped bodice so nicely - even Jeff commented on how cute the sleeves were. This was my first time making a pattern by Sew Much Ado and it came together really nicely, plus I learned a new skill in making those scallops. This also was the easiest time I've had setting in sleeves!
The dress has a lot of options - a scalloped bodice or straight, the cute little notched sleeves or sleeveless, knee length or maxi. It comes in a nice wide size range, too - 12-18 months all the way up to 12 years. I think there are several versions of this dress in our future...
My sewing skills are still not perfect, but I'm happy to feel like this dress doesn't look obviously homemade (she's worn it to church twice and no one has asked yet if I made it, so that is definitely a good thing!)

I used a navy fabric I've had laying around a while for the bodice, not sure exactly what it is, but it has a bit of a sheen to it and a nice drape without being too thin. The skirt is some beautiful Elizabeth Olwen cotton that I bought while I was pregnant, and it actually inspired the colors for the cub's nursery. I made the size 12-18 months, but did lengthen the bodice by an inch for my long torso-ed girl.


I think she definitely looks happy with her new dress. :)