Pattern Tester | Gardenia Dress By Cali Faye Collection

  I was recently selected to test the women’s Gardenia Dress by Cali Faye Collection.  I was so thrilled to get the email that I had been selected since I love her designs!  Knowing I would be on a serious time crunch, my husband was flying in for 4 days (He's moved for business, we will eventually join him), I set to work right away. 

  I was surprised at how easily the dress came together.  As I have said many times before, I am mainly self taught and I generally only sew for my kids, but the instructions were clear and easy to follow.  One of the things that impressed me the most was how not "homemade" it looked. This is my biggest fear sewing for myself and what has held me back from doing much of it in the past. Kids look cute in homemade, moms look frumpy.  This is not the case at all with the Gardenia Dress.  It is well crafted to look professionally finished and stylish.

  I used a sturdy jersey knit with lots of stretch and 100% recovery.  I was actually so impressed that my local fabric store had a great weight and colour in the fabric I was hoping for (this is not always the case for this store).  I selected a midnight blue colour with flecks of black with the hopes of styling this dress with boots and possibly a scarf here in Toronto for the colder weather or flats and a clutch when our family moves permanently to Florida.  

  Sarah was so gracious and sweet to work with, and responded so quickly to any questions I had during construction.  My only complaint with the pattern would be that the neck seemed rather large.  I am fairly flat chested so I have this problem a lot and felt as though I could have maybe gone down a size in  the top section.  The design is to be flowy but not too big.  Sarah took a look at the pattern and has reworked the scoop of the neck with her final release.  So, if you're worried it looks too low, it's been adjusted.

So now it's your turn!  Go ahead and grab this dress, a staple for anyone on the go wanting to look put together when really you only had 5 minutes!

Congrats Sarah on an great pattern, and thanks again for granting me the honour to help test!

The Gardenia Dress pattern can be purchased here and be sure check out her facebook page here to grab your 20% discount until Sunday, October 12th 11:59pm EST (Monday, October 13th 1:59pm AEDT).!

Gap Knock Off Project

I recently completed my first ever knock off pattern (if you missed it you can find it here) and ever since I've had the bug to try again.  Mix in a giant move from Toronto to Florida, plus immigration, plus flying between Toronto and Florida for the next 6 to 8 months and it took a little longer than hoped.  At any rate, I had a few minutes so I sat down to knock off this Checkered flannel dress from the GAP.  I loved the dress, I love the GAP, but again didn't love the price tag.  With a growing girl, I find myself purchasing an entire new wardrobe each time the weather changes therefore I need to plan carefully and stretch my dollar as far as it will go.  What I wanted was a $40 dress from the GAP, what I got was the exact same dress for $8.

Original- GAP $40



My original plan was to up-cycle a plaid shirt, but since I didn't have one already and was visiting Florida at the time, I visited Jo-Ann instead.  With a 60% off coupon in hand I found exactly what I was hoping for and was able to purchase the 2 yards I wanted for just $8 total.  I already had a zipper and a pattern used from a previous project so I had everything I needed.

To make the dress, I used a dress pattern that I have made before a know fits her well.  I used The Adelaide A-Line Dress by Seamingly Smitten.  I made a few tweaks to suit my purpose, one of which was making the arms a little bit skinnier than the original pattern,  but overall I was a great shell for what I was doing.   The neck was a little more scooped than I wanted but I was able to fix that with a small dart in the front (I should have thought about this sooner, so if you are make the neck smaller, you can use a favourite t-shirt as your guide.  I also just cut the back as a scoop mirroring the front rather than a "v".  (Total side note: I love the "V" detail on this dress when I made it for my daughter, the detail is adorable, just not what I needed for this dress). 

Another change I made was I cut the length of the dress shorter than normal (approx 14 inches, from her shoulder to hip) to add the drop waist.  To make the drop waist I cut a piece of fabric that was 8 inches long by double the width of the completed dress top.  I simply hemmed one end of waist fabric (the bottom) and sewed the two short edges together to make a circle. I then baste stitched the top to allow for sinching.  When it was sinched down to size and to my liking I attached the the skirt to the top hiding the seams on the inside and placing the seam at the back under the zipper.

The pattern I used also did not use a zipper, but I find dressing a dancing spinning 4 year old is always easier when she can step in and zip up.  While adding a zipper seems scary it was super easy.  I simply cut the back piece of the dress in half and followed this tutorial here. The video is the directions that come with a zipper when you buy it, sometimes its easier to do once you've seen it. 

This dress was super easy!  Pair it with tights or leggings, some cute boots and you have a comfy, cozy and super durable dress for cool fall days.  Add a vest and this girl's ready for the ski chalet!