I wanted to make something with the shape of the Well Dressed Wolf Aunt Heart dresses for my sweet girl’s Thanksgiving dress. I decided to use the Knot Right Now from LLK for my base and modify it as I worked. This is a quick and easy modification to make.
I made my straps longer than the KNR pattern calls for by a few inches to be sure that I had enough length to reach all the way down the front bodice. I lengthened the ruffle as well before I gathered it and sewed it into the straps. I set the ruffles to go down the front bodice and stop about where I thought the straps would end. I eyeballed the placement.
Next I pinned the long straps down the front bodice. Looking from the inside of the bodice, I aligned the outside edges of the straps (not ruffle) with the corners of the bodice.
I sewed the straps in place from the front side, being careful to stitch evenly because these stitches will be very visible.
I wanted to cross my back straps and attach them via button with a buttonhole. I crossed them over and placed the buttonholes a bit to the inside of the corners on the back.
This was a mistake! =) But a fixable one. See how the straps pulled the back bodice and made it pucker? Whoops. I would need to put those buttonholes close together in the middle of the back bodice to make the look work. But then I’d have inches of bodice fabric with nothing holding it on the edges in the back. Not the look I’m going for, and I don’t want to take the time to try to reshape the back.
So I uncrossed those puppies. Not exactly what I had in mind when I started, but very cute nonetheless.
I wanted my bottom ruffle to look like it was attached to a separate under layer instead of sewn directly into the skirt. So I hemmed the skirt first and sewed the ruffle in about 1.5 inches up. This made the hem of the fox fabric hang funny and flip up in spots, so I sewed the ruffle down around the bottom edge as well. I think it still looks like I sewed a ruffle on the normal way, not an under skirt. I’ll try something else next time. =)
Then I took this cute girl out into the sunshine and we took tons of fun photos of her cute, foxy Thanksgiving dress.
I like the fun mix of patterns and colors. My grandmother, who taught me how to sew, used the green dot fabric in a diaper bag she made for me years ago. She died around this time last year, and I love to use her scraps in my projects. Makes me smile to see little bits of her.
KRN is an easy, quick pattern and it was fun to change things up a little bit.