Twirl to Me Dress

Months ago now, Debbie of Lily Sage & Co put out the call for volunteers to test out a girl's dress pattern, the Twirl to Me dress (this one).  She'd already made several for her daughters - this one, and this one, and this early hint - and they all looked rather special, so I very quickly put my hand up, assuming the dress would be right up my daughter's alley.

At the time I sewed this my daughter was a very tall 7 year old (135cm tall or 4'5"), so I chose to sew the dress in a size 8.  The pattern didn't include a height chart, but the chest measurement for a size 8 looked to fit my daughter's measurements and Debbie's daughters are tall so I assumed the dress would be drafted for tall girls.

The dress is a trapeze shape with a high-low hem and a clever shoulder straps that culminate in a bow on the front.

The armhole melds in with the half crescent on the front of the dress to make a lovely shape...

... and the dress is fantastic for twirling and dancing!

These photos were taken several months ago at the start of winter in the Southern Hemisphere, and the dress was already verging on too tight and too short.  The chest width would have been perfect if I'd done everything right, but I cut the dress out late at night and mistakenly cut the front with a centre seam. To try to make the curved bodice fit the shape of the underarm curve neatly as it's supposed to (the pieces do line up exactly if you cut out and sew accurately!) I sewed a narrow centre front seam and slightly narrowed the side seams only on the front dress pieces, but I think I still lost about 1.5cm in the total circumference.

I know the dress doesn't look too short in these photos, but I guess we all have different lengths we're prepared to wear, and this just felt too short to my daughter...

Sadly my daughter only wore the dress for these photos, and it's now well and truly too small.  I don't have a younger daughter or niece to pass this dress onto either, so it's now free to a good home :).

My sewing on this dress isn't immaculate, but it's not terrible either. The fabric is 100% cotton, apart from a little bit of cotton-poly bias binding under the arms and there are two sweet pink buttons on the back. The white patch on the inside of the dress at centre front is interfacing - this stabilises the hole where the bow comes through at the front of the dress:

The chest circumference is 64cm / 25" (with my extra centre front seam!!), and the dress measures 60cm / 25" at the front from the top of the half crescent to the hemline (and obviously longer in the back).

Let me know in the comments if you have a little girl a bit smaller than mine who'd like this dress - I'm happy to mail worldwide.


See you soon


- Gabrielle xx