Princess Bella Dress

I just finished this dress yesterday.  This is another one for the local fabric store.  Sophie absolutely loves it!  She didn't want to take it off, and I could hardly get her to stop spinning to get a decent picture of it.  This one is by Izzy & Ivy Designs.  BTW:  They are having a giveaway on their blog right now, and I think there will be a total of 12 winners!

I love all of their designs.  I went to a trunk show a few months ago and almost everything I picked up was from them, but I was a little dissapointed with this pattern.  It is a very simple dress to make, but I felt like some things were only half explained and the width of the top panels and the width of the bottom panels did not match up...I am still not sure if I had it turned the wrong way but I put them with the widths they indicated running the way the width is supposed to run and they don't match up, so I just gathered the bottom layer as I was pinning.

Another thing I didn't like was that when you get to the shirring part it tells you were to start shirring but not how much distance between your rows of shirring.  That question is anwered on the last page when you read their shirring tutorial...which I didn't read because I already know how to shir, so I guess it was sorta my fault, but I still think they should have the distance written in the pattern itself especially since it directs you to a shirring tutorial online instead of the one at the end of the pattern...I don't want to have to get my computer out in the middle of sewing!

There weren't really any major problems...just things that could be frustrating to someone who is new to sewing...or people who like me want everything laid out for them when following a pattern.  But I would still recommend it with a few suggestions:

1. If you don't have a serger, buy a rolled hem foot for your machine...I just ordered one off of ebay for $13....this will make the project go much faster. Doing a fake rolled hem on those curves was so tedious!

2.  Check the width of the top and bottom dress panels before you cut to make sure they are the same...I may have done something wrong and just be having trouble catching myself but just check.

3.  It may because I am using a Brother...but I have found the thicker the fabric is  the less it shrinks up when you shir it.  This pattern calls for you to shir through two layers of fabric...I knew it was going to be a problem before I even did it but I figured I would just give it a try.  Well it was still to big for me to wear when I was done...so I shirred directly on top of what I had done before and it only shrunk up another couple of inches.

To be sure it wasn't a tension problem, I quit midway and shirred a single layer scrap of fabric and it worked out fine.  If you look at the pics closely you can see how it is all bunched up from me tying the sash tightly so that it would fit.

I measured and my fabric only shrunk up to about 50% as opposed to the usually 75-80%.  I would suggest testing on a double layer of fabric on your machine before cutting the panels and finding outhow much it shrinks up and cut the width of the panels accordingly.

In other words, if your fabric only shrinks up 50% your total width shouldn't be more than twice your chest measurement....I hope that makes sense.  Feel free to ask me any questions and I'll do my best to help you out.

But as you can see...it is so adorable and definately worth making!  I can't wait to get around to making more of their patterns!