Do all little girls like standing on their heads?

When deciding what my girls should wear in the morning, we are are looking for three main things:

1. Comfort
2. Style
3. and the ability to stand on ones heads without showing ones underwear. (Fact: my girls spend 40% of their day standing on their heads.)

With this in mind I set to work to come up with a design using the organic navy Ministar fabric sent to me by Nosh. A fabric bundle of joy, that also contained some sumptuous magenta Flamé.

Nosh fabric is divine, the quality is exceptional, so I didn’t want to waste a single scrap of fabric making something that wasn’t going to be worn (a lot).

The task: To make something quick and easy but bursting with style.

Target: Sew it up within 1 hour. But, like Jamie Oliver’s 30 Minute Meals, this does not include preparation time; making the pattern, adjustments, cutting the pattern, etc.

Using the ‘make it up as you go along – hope for the best – freestyle method’, I came up with a simple, fresh and chic, circle dress with a high low hem. You know I love a high low. And I couldn’t be more pleased with the beautiful result.

Scout loved it from the moment she put it on. She immediately started to jump and spin and dance around. Don’t you just love it when a dress has that effect on a child? I still have moments like that myself and I’m not afraid to admit it.

I am so pleased with the dress that without doubt, I will be making many, many more. Now that I’ve made the pattern, I could whiz one up in the time it takes my 8 year old to put her shoes and coat on.

Infact, I think it has Madeit Patterns quality, so we have decided to develop and refine it (add more body), grade it and make it into a Madeit Pattern for our next collection. So watch this space, soon you could be making a Groove Dress for a little one in your life.

You may be wondering how come up with name ‘Groove Dress’. It’s just a temporary name, randomly generated. I had six words to choose from. Well? Which one would you have chosen?

Ok, so the Groove Dress is a) comfortable b) stylish but… it has a fundamental flaw, c) no ability to stand on ones heads without showing ones underwear.

But that’s easy to rectify – leggings! and matching ones to boot.

I was itching to use my Japanese sewing book again, I found a pattern for leggings in Sew Sweet, the ones the little girl is wearing on the front cover. Unlike any other leggings I have sewn, they had a seam down the outer leg as well as the inner leg. I can’t really see much benefit in this, unless you want to add some piping or something down the outer seam or use a different fabric at the front or back perhaps. However, the leggings turned out a perfect fit, without any alterations, and I got my Japanese sewing fix for the month. Result!

The pattern features a cute little lace detail at the cuff of the leggings, but I used some fancy bias tape that I got from La Droguerie, when I went to Paris. I followed the detail through to the inside back of the leggings and even Scout was impressed. It makes me smile when she notices these little things.

By the way, can you see the small black stars on the fabric? They are very subtle, you could easily miss them, but I really like that the stars are not over powering. Great for a dress that’s all about the contemporary silhouette.

As well as the navy Ministar, my little fabric bundle of joy also included some magenta Flamé. I didn’t have much, but enough for some harem pants, the ones I made last year are too short already. 

The pattern is self drafted, Scout will definitely wear them (a lot) because they’re PINK!!!! after all.

So, if you are keen to find out when the Groove Dress comes on sale at Madeit Patterns, follow us on Facebook to get the early low down.