Sewing

The Patsy Party Dress

Kyra

Jan 16, 2019 •6 minutes to read

In December Rebecca Page released the free Patsy Party dress. At first I was going to sew up the ladies’ version of the pattern for myself even though I wasn’t sure where I was going to wear it. I wasn’t too worried about sewing it as I trust Rebecca’s instructions completely and thought it would be a fun outfit to construct. Then I started thinking about sourcing the materials since if I was going to sew it and store it, I wanted to make it the best it could be (including the optional boning, interlining, and horsehair braid). I didn’t want to make it and regret leaving any options out… and then started thinking about where I was going to store the finished dress… so I figured it was better to wait until I had a reason to sew it and can justify storing the finished garment. I decided to sew up the Patsy dress for the kids so I’d still be able sew up a version of it. I love how it turned out!

The Patsy Party dress was a fun sew that creates an epic party dress with clean hidden seams. This was an incredibly fun dress to sew up.

For my girls I used the free Patsy Party dress through Rebecca Page. You can also buy the add-on if you want to include a shrug at the top or change the default skirt to a high low skirt, pleated pencil skirt, jumpsuit, or fishtail skirt. For your convenience here’s the links:

For the main fabric I went to JOANN’s fabrics, after confirming there was a sale on the fabric I was planning, and released both kids to browse the novelty 100% cotton aisle. I loved watching them shop. Zoey kept choosing a bolt, I confirmed it with her and loaded it into the cart, and then she’d find another one which we’d swap out with the previous bolt in the cart, and repeated again and again. Ada took her time looking at all of the bolts of fabric and then made her final decision. I got Ada to confirm her cut-on dinos on black and Zoey to agree on her final pick of pink glitter mermaid scales (for the sparkly-ness) and we headed to the cutting table. For the bodice lining I used black 100% cotton fabric I bought earlier that month from Fabric.com. You’ll also need elastic for the back of the dress if you’re sewing up the kids while the ladies has an invisible zipper instead.

Stack of chosen cut fabric from JOANN's fabrics. — Ada and Zoey each chose their perfect novelty fabric and I made sure to round up by a yard or two. The car fabric hitched a ride since it was perfect with other fabric I picked out for another Christmas dress I had planned.

Patsy Party Dresses

I love how large the skirts (perfect for twirling). The bodice of the dress is completely lined so all the seams are hidden within. The skirt is put together with french seams and is attached to the bodice in a way to hide the seams there too. The longest step in the process was adding the elastic to the back, hand stitching the bodice liner down, and hemming such an amazing skirt. The instructions walk you through each and every step so it is simple to follow along and make an heirloom quality dress for your child.

Dinosaur dress laid out with the skirt full and the sparkly scaled dress laid over top. — Finished sparkly dress and a dinosaur dress. Love how my girls can have dresses done up in their current favorite fabrics. It was interesting switching between the two fabrics since the sparkly one was less drape-y because of the glitter addition.

Front bodice and top of the skirt for the finished sparkly Patsy dress. — Princess cut bodice lined up with the panel seams of the skirt.

Back of the elastic cinched bodice. — Closeup of the back of the dress with the elastic added so you don’t need to worry about zipping your kids’ into their dresses. Perfect fit with minimal effort later on.

Inside of the sparkly Patsy dress' bodice. — Closeup of the inside of the bodice. The pink threads stand out on the inside but they blend in perfectly on the outside of the bodice.

Inside of the skirt with the french seams. — I love how the inside of the skirt looks with the perfect french seams connecting each skirt panel and then hem at the bottom.

Then I wrapped the dresses, crossed my fingers they fit, and waited until they opened them on Christmas day to try them on.

Sparkly Scaled Patsy Party Dress

Dinosaur Patsy Party Dress

Shortening the Straps

Since I didn’t want to try the dresses on the girls ahead of time I attached the straps as the instructions said without shortening them first. The kids had measured into one size of the dress and then were one or two sizes larger for the length of the dress so I had cut the straps out at the larger measurement just in case. I ended up checking how much shorter the straps needed to be while the kids were wearing the dresses and recorded the measurement difference to shorten the straps later. I ended up folding the strap down inside the back of the bodice and sewed these folded over strap into place in the hopes that over time I can just seam rip the stitches to extend the straps later so they are wearable for longer.

Excess fabric at the back of the straps sewn into place inside of the back bodice.

I love these dresses and love how they’re so gorgeously put together. I’ve already started planning another version for both girls and have already cut out the fabric. If you’re interested in the version I made you can get it for free through the Patsy Party Dress bundle or if you want to include a shrug at the top or change the default skirt to a high low skirt, pleated pencil skirt, jumpsuit, or fishtail skirt can purchase the Patsy Party Dress Add On.

I’d love to hear from you whether you make the Patsy for yourself or someone else. Feel free to share your creation in the comments below, on my Facebook page, or through Instagram. I love seeing all the different styles you can make with a single pattern… and then there’s the add on that I’ll eventually break into too. Hope you’re having a great week.

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