Crossover Flounce

I may have a rather fickle young child, but she has declared this to be her favourite dress.

Designs by Call Ajaire has designed the Crossover Flounce Dress, released as part of One Thimble Issue 11.  It was a privilege to be able to test this dress. The design is really magnificent.

The boatneck collar allows for easy dressing, with no need for any closures.  But for those children with larger heads, there is the option of a keyhole closure secured at the top with a small piece of elastic - no fiddly buttons to struggle with while getting dressed, or get caught in hair.

I tested the long sleeve version (I may have mentioned before that I'm a bit of a fan of longsleeve woven dresses) as we're approaching Winter.  There is also a capped sleeve version, which will be perfect for Summer - short sleeves, but still plenty of coverage for sunny days.

The sleeves are kind of a dolman - cut in one piece with the bodice, so not too many pieces to cut (or pattern pieces to lose).

The glory of the dress is the crossover skirt. Two eccentric circle skirts overlapping to give amazing flounce and twirl. Miss M loves twirling in this dress, the amount of twirl is HUGE - shorties are a must under this dress.

One of the great features of the dress is that it is reversible - two dresses in one. The construction is clever, but easy to follow.  The second one of these I made was a 'one-night' sew, nice and quick.

The dress is a little fabric hungry - there are four layers of skirt in there, and the dolman sleeves chew a bit up too. I used some vintage sheets for the first version - lightweight, plenty of fabric and oh so soft to wear.

The second version I made using a mix of voile, lawn and eyehole synthetic I found from a thrift store.  I wanted to use just voile, as it had the lightness I was after, but a little more structure. But I was concerned about having enough width to make the skirts, so grabbed some lawn in the same colour (just about).  Either would have worked out fine. In the end I was pretty happy with the outcome of the overlay of the eyelet fabric over the pink.

I love this dress (even if it is a pain to iron). I can see a lot more of these in the future.

I like to think of this as her 'Jedi' pose. Love the look of concentration on her face.

Knowing the quality of this pattern, I was so excited to see all that was in One Thimble.  I hadn't bought an e-zine before, and wasn't too sure what to expect. It was just like reading a normal magazine (except I have a copy sitting in my pocket for whenever I want to check something). It's full of interesting articles and patterns I can't wait to sew up - especially the ones for boys they look like such a great mix of comfortable and cool/trendy.

The pattern is available as part of Issue 11 of One Thimble. Or as a standalone pattern.