Over the years I have discovered that I work better with a deadline- which is why I appreciate the opportunity to test patterns. This dress is the Rebel Girl Party Dress by Bella Sunshine Designs and funnily enough I bought this pattern when it was first released two ish years ago- but never managed to sew it up (I haven't figured out how to self impose deadlines)
So when the call went out that this darling dress was going through another round of testing, I jumped on it.
I am always thrilled to sew a BSD pattern, I have been sewing for years but I always manage to learn a new trick from her patterns. Now there are also a ton of helpful videos that BSD has made, in case you aren't familiar with a certain step which make the patterns great for beginners also. This dress is a size 8 in chest and height and is graded to a 9 in the waist- and the pattern includes the instructions on how to blend sizes. I think my biggest piece of advice with this pattern is to make sure your measurements are fresh and you take the time to blend sizes so you really end up with a perfect fitting back.
Cordelia thought it was fun to stand on the heat and make her skirt puff out- just like Alice falling down the rabbit hole. Speaking of Alice in Wonderland- this Alice fabric is a Japanese import fabric, made by Lecien and purchased from Bunny's Designs. It is very light weight so I was a tad worried it wouldn't work well for this dress, but since I had it in two colors and I loved the idea of doing a contrast back, I really wanted to give it a go- and it turned out just fine!
The pattern includes a lot of technical steps to insure the dress doesn't pull or stretch out of shape. I found these extra steps were helpful with my lightweight fabric. The pattern actually has a lot of steps I normally don't the time to do. So often I rush my sewing and I don't take the time to enjoy the process of making something perfect. In the Rebel dress everything is under stitched, the waist of the skirt is reinforced, the skirt is lined, and the instructions for the invisible zipper are some of the best I have read- In fact this is the nicest invisible zipper I have ever installed.
My favorite detail of this pattern really is that back. I am a tad conservative in what I think is appropriate in kids clothing- kids grow up so fast I want their clothing to stay kids clothing as long as possible. Soo often skinny straps or exposed backs, on Cordelia, just make her look really grown up, but this back has such a nice balance of being fun and different, and not overly adult and I just love it. I can see several more of these working their way into Cordelia's summer wardrobe this year!
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