Girls Dress Patterns by Anna Vickery

Hello hello, 

Anna here and I’m very excited to be introducing my new range of Sewing Patterns For Children’s Clothing! These are available in printed form from Millie Moon shops and as a download in the Crafty Alex shop. 

They’ve been a long time coming…..I’ve been working with Millie Moon for over a year now and I’ve often been asked when people see my little dresses in the shops ‘Do you have a pattern for that?’ or during workshops ‘Can I buy a pattern?’ and the answer is now YES!!

My mission was to create an easy to follow, multi sized range that was simple to sew at home and that you can buy all the lovely materials you need to make at Millie Moon. 

There’s 3 styles to fit ages 1-5 to start with - a very cute Party Dress with a full skirt, a versatile sleeveless Pinafore Dress and an A-line T Shirt Dress with built in sleeves.

They’ve been a challenge to put together, I had to use my, somewhat rusty and self taught, CAD experience and call upon some of my lovely friends for their help - huge thanks to Chris at Wing’s Art and Design Studio and Aran at Latitude Photography for their skills, and everyone at Millie Moon for their enthusiasm and patience.

I hope you enjoy making the patterns as much as I’ve enjoyed putting them together - all feedback would be much appreciated, I’d love to see photos of your finished dresses and hear your suggestions for the next additions to the range.

Please note…….All my patterns are clearly marked Not For Commercial Use, this means they are for home use only by Mummys, Aunties, Nannys etc making for their friends and family NOT for business or any other monetary gains/sale. 

 I’m also aiming to cover making all the little dresses as workshops at Millie Moon, starting with the Pinafore Dress on 9th February in Keynsham and 27^th April in Frome - these workshops include all materials too, bargain. x

Follow Anna on twitter via @makemeadress_av for more sewing tips and tricks. 

Click on each picture to purchase the downloadable patterns. 

DIY Beauty Sleep Eye Mask

This week Anna is sharing her DIY Eye Mask tutorial with us, I'm already a fan after seeing this for real and I want one, now. Prepare to say goodbye to eye-bags and hello to beauty sleep. You'll of course need a dramatic peignoir and fluffy, heeled slippers to match for your boudoir attire. Enjoy the sewing x

Gwen likes the eye mask too!

Beauty Sleep Eye Mask

A lovely and unique home made present, perfect for using up scrap sized pieces of material.

You will need:

Materials: A piece of patterned (or plain) outer fabric, approx 25cm/15cm.
A piece of silk, or soft cotton for the lining, approx 25cm/15cm.
A scrap piece of dark coloured fabric (any) to block out the light, approx 25cm/15cm.
A piece of padding, roughly 5mm thick, approx 25cm/15cm
100cm of 25mm wide ribbon for the head tie.
60cm of bias binding, to compliment the outer fabric, for the edges.
Other bits of ribbon or bows for decoration.
Coordinating threads.

Tools: Sewing Machine
Scissors
Hand sewing needle
Pins
Pen
Paper to make pattern.

1.
Make the eye sleep mask pattern by folding in half a piece of paper and drawing half a mask shape. Think half a pair of Jackie O or Avaiator sunglasses but deeper in the middle. Don’t make any of the curves too tight or it will be difficult binding. Cut out your pattern.

2.
Draw around your pattern and cut out 1 x outer, 1 x lining, 1 x dark fabric and 1 x padding. Cut the ribbon for the head tie into 2 x 50cm pieces.

3.
Sandwich together the outer fabric / padding / dark fabric / lining and pin all 4 layers in place. Pin the head tie ribbon on the lining side to the edges, make sure this is level.

4.
On the lining side, starting at either side of the mask, open out one side of the bias binding and line up the edge with the edges of the mask. Stitch along the fold of the binding using your sewing machine, running all around the mask shape - fold the binding over at the start and overlap it at the finish. Remove the pins.

5.
Turn to the outside of the mask and fold around the other edge of the binding, covering the raw edges of the material layers and use the stitch line as a guide to line the binding up to, try to just cover it. Stitch around the mask on machine, backstitch at the start/finish to secure.

6.
Add any additional decoration, bows/lace/trim using hand sewing needle/thread - this could be elaborate as you want - be creative…..Sleep well xx

DIY - How to Sew a Button

Going back to basics today as I have heard too many people say 'I can't even sew a button'. Now there's no excuse. 

You need :
The Button
A needle
Thread
Something to cut the thread with.

Thread you needle with the thread doubled so it is stronger for button sewing.

Don't tie a knot at the end of the thread, just do a stitch, then stitch back over that stitch, and then loop through on the third stitch to tie a knot. This is a stronger base.

Thread on the button and stitch through the second hole into the base stitch you just did. Keep stitching round and round through the button holes four or five times.

On the last stitch don't go through the fabric. Instead wrap the thread around and around the base of the button underneath to make it stand away from the fabric. This is good for fastening buttons so the fabric sits nicely underneath the button. 

Stitch through to the back of the fabric, loop and knot and then trim.

This is how the front and back of the fabric will look with the button is sewn. And there you have sewn your first button.

I am hoping to fill a year of tutorials, most will be more complex than this and I would love to hear suggestions. Enjoy stitching!  xxx