This Year's Christmas Dresses part 3 - Tropisch dress

The last of this year's Christmas dresses was for little Ada, 3. Ada is destined to be the hand-me-down girl, with an older sister and two older girl cousins. However, this does mean she has a lot more clothes than the others ever had, becuase she has all of theirs, and some of her own too! And she loves the clothes she gets that Grandma made. Nonetheless, for Christmas, I thought it only right that she had her very own, never previously worn dress. I wanted to use the same fabric that I had used on the skirt of her cousin Rose's dress. It's a pretty 100% cotton fabric with a design of tiny bows. This makes it suitably Christmassy, but not exclusively so. 

For this dress, I wanted to try another new pattern that I'd found (new to me, that is). It's called the Tropisch dress, and it's an A-line / shift style - I've frequently mentioned that I think an A-line pattern is one of the most versatile there is. To find out where to get this free pattern in sizes 3-6, and how I adapted it to make Ada's dress, read on.

I'd had a favourite free A-line pattern, in 18 months to 5 years, from Climbing the Willow, for a number of years. I still have the PDF, so in theory, I could have used it for this. But, very sadly, the Climbing the Willow web site is now defunct, so I can no longer give a direct link to the pattern on-line from its designer. Hence my interest in trying a new one, which is accessible.

The Tropisch pattern from Eli Monster  comes in sizes 3-6. This was perfect for me. I used the size 4 pattern for Ada. Although she's only 3 and a half, at 103 cm, she's not short for her age, and I always prefer to allow for growth rather than have something outgrown almost immediately. It is also a very short mid-thigh length style, but as I intended to add a frill, I was happy with the length of the size 4.

It is a very simple pattern, with a lined facing, and a zip up the back. I used a matching red satin-y lining - fabric from my stash. The making up suggested is one I've used many times:

• Sew the shoulder seams on the dress and lining;
• Sew round the neckline and armholes right sides together;
• Press and trim / clip curves;
• Pull the backs through the shoulder seams;
• Attach the zipper (I didn't use one - see below)
• Sew up the side seams in a continuous seam from the bottom edge of the facing through to the bottom edge of the dress hem.

The pattern also suggests making a separate facing for the hem. I wouldn't have bothered with this anyway, would probably just have used some bias binding tape, but as I was adding a frill, this facing wasn't needed. You can see the frill here, it was wide white broderie anglaise.

However, I had to modify the method a little, because I wanted to add sleeves (it's a Christmas dress, after all. Christmas is cold in England.) I attached the necklines of dress and lining, but NOT the armholes. Instead, I attached the sleeves to the armholes, and then attached the lining by clipping the curves a little, and pressing the edges under. I hand stitched the lining on this little dress, but you could top stitch it, just leaving the very ends unattached so you can do the side seam. The sleeves were unlined.

I used some sleeves from another pattern as the basis, and then did a 'Slash and Spread' to make some wide flared sleeves. (For how to do Slash and Spread, see this post.)

Next, I wanted to add a pocket. I used my own pocket pattern . I added a narrow strip of white broderie anglaise to the front of the pocket, before making it, so the ends could be caught in the side seams of the pocket. I used two layers sewn together right sides together, leaving a small gap for turning it the right way out, and attached it to the dress front before I did anything else. 

My final embellishment was to make a faux yoke, by adding some bobble trim. I sewed this on after doing the shoulder seams and attaching sleeves, but before fully attaching the lining at the back seam, so the raw ends could be trapped in the lining.

You will also see from the above picture that I dispensed with the zip. An A-line dress is pretty easy for a child to get on over her head, provided the neck opening is large enough. They like to do as much as they can towards dressing themselves as independently as possible - zips are not the answer to this.  

So I sewed up most of the back seam and added some little tabs with white Kam snaps to fasten the small opening I had left above the seam. This is how I made the little tabs. (They were attached between the lining and the dress edges.)

Yes, someone else has to help with those Kam snaps, but she could just run around with them undone if there was no-one to help immediately! (You can probably see that this one is a bit of a cheeky monkey!)

Anyway, it's fair to say the dress was a success. A useful pattern, even though I made my own modification. But that to me is one of the great things with basic patterns - they do lend themselves to a fair amount of creativity. Here is the link again to the Eli Monster free Tropisch dress pattern for girls, age 3-6.