Summer of SOLEIL

Summer is all about soleil, or sun – right?

This dress, designed by Lauren Dahl of Selvage Designs is the epitome of easy summer dressing.  A cute peekaboo back, comfy knit, giant pockets and a breezy silhouette mean this dress is already your little girls’ new favorite dress; before you’ve even sewn it!

The pattern is so professional and clear – it features layers for printing and really clear illustrations for the tutorial.  I tried to emulate Lauren’s illustrations on my Matinée pattern, and I think if I came even close then I’ve accomplished something.

Since I made Arden a dress while I was pattern testing for Lauren, it was Hadley’s turn for some Soleil.  I’ve been drawn to stripes and floral combinations lately, so I picked these two, both from Girl Charlee.  The floral is a modal cotton spandex blend and the stripes are cotton jersey blend.

Now, you might notice that I used the stripe as the binding on the dress.  I really wanted to use it across grain so I’d have vertical striped bindings, but this was two-way stretch jersey and I was already playing fast and loose with the recommendations Lauren provides in the pattern.  I had a few worried moments when I tried to put the bodice over Arden’s head while Hadley was napping and it would NOT go over her head.  Just as I was trying to figure out an alternative, Hadley woke up and it did pop over her head with a little shimmying.  Phew!  Apparently, those recommendations are there for a reason – who knew?

This really is a nice, easy sew which adds to the use-again-and-again pattern status in my book.  I was able to get the pattern printed and pieced, all the pieces cut and had the bodice mostly together all during one of Hadley’s fairly short naps.   I put the most recent Tinkerbell movie on for the girls and popped some popcorn and had the dress ready in plenty of time to take photos.

I have a serger, but to prove that you can definitely make this dress without one, I constructed this dress with only serged edges on two edges; the waistband and hem.  You can for sure make this without serging, but I have a tendency to have so many dangling threads by the time I’ve gathered that it’s often easier to just serge them off.

I did my best to match up the stripes at the side seams and came pretty close.  And the verdict from Hadley?  Well, I think the pictures tell the story – she loves it!

You can get your pattern in the Selvage Designs pattern shop.  Lauren has offered up a Soleil pattern to giveaway – enter using the Rafflecopter widget below.
a Rafflecopter giveaway