Jenna Leigh Dress

I just finished a new dress for my granddaughter, Jenna Leigh from Bonnie Blue Designs.

Farmhouse Fabrics carries quite a few kits, and I couldn't resist this color combination. The pindot exactly matches the flower centers, and the mint green ric rac and buttons match the tiny bits of green in the flowered fabric.

I have absolutely no color sense, so I really jump at the chance to find something cute, well matched and not too loud and gaudy, as so many children's clothes seem to be these days. That baby ric rac is rather difficult to attach, as you can see by some of the red fabric peeking out from under the bottom of the ric rac. So what to do? I rummaged through all of the feet to my Husqvarna Viking machine and found:

a braiding foot. Might just work!

And boy, did it ever! the opening in the foot is just the right size for baby ric rac, which is just about 10 cm wide from tip to tip.

Perfect application! And I was able to sew it on quite a bit faster than by using a normal sewing foot. 

Finished dress.

Close up of the back with those huge buttons. They are 1 3/8 inches wide (35 cm), and in my opinion, way too big for this size 7 dress. But I knew I probably wouldn't be able to find anything that matched locally.

Likes:
Cute dress and great fabric selections. The fabrics are high quality quilt cottons, the pindot is a Michael Miller, the floral is from Art Gallery Fabrics. As I mentioned, the fabrics, buttons and ric rac all coordinate beautifully.

Dislikes:
The pattern is not well written, containing omissions and outright mistakes. The most annoying are for this view there is no instruction for the yoke side seams but after searching the pattern instructions, I was able to find the yoke side seam instructions for View 1.  The yoke yardage is insufficient, but luckily the pindot has no nap, so I was able to squeeze the the fabric pieces in. If the fabric has a nap or a directional design this would not be possible.  There was no marking for a center back seam, which I've never seen before. There were a few other issues, but I'll save those for when I write a review on Pattern Review.  An experienced sewer can work through all these problems, but when I pay $14.00 for a pattern, I expect it to be error free!

Tomorrow morning I'm flying to California to help Mr CS finish packing for our move. We need to vacate the house by June 30. We will be driving fairly slowly back to Colorado, as we will have Oscar, the cat, who is 19 years old and not used to car drives. I hope to have a couple of projects to work on and post about while in California.