Go To Signature Pattern – BLOG TOUR!

I am pretty excited to be a part of this blog tour – – this pattern is making it’s rounds!  But that’s awesome, because it has ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES!

This is a dress pattern from Andrea of the blog The Train to Crazy – – she just opened a pattern shop called Go To Patterns – it’s all about patterns that are your go-to – – this one’s no exception.

Just like it says, it’s a go-to pattern.  When you buy a pattern, you want it to be able to be used multiple times – this is it!  It comes in sizes 12 months all the way through 12 years, so your little girls won’t be outgrowing it anytime soon.  Plus it comes with so many options – several different ways to do the sleeves, waistband, length, pockets, addition of a hood and embellishments – really , the combos are endless!

My thoughts on the pattern:

PROS
–comes in tons of sizes – it’ll fit all the girls I would want to make this for
–sleeve and length and waistband and pocket options – each dress you make can be different from the others
–a chart to help you layout the pattern (I always struggle with puzzle-piecing patterns together – this one has a real handy guide to walk you through it)
–helpful info on sewing with knits, including how to do it, explaining different types of knits,etc – the pattern teaches as it goes instead of just telling you to do something
–step by step photo instructions

CONS
–length – – because it’s so throrough, it’s a long document, so lots of pages to print out – but you figure you’ll only have to do that once- or you could read the instructions from the computer as I did
–piecing together the pattern – – this is always a struggle for me, although this one made it easier

I repurposed for this dress instead of using new fabrics – – I had a knit green dress from a clothing swap that I used as a main fabric and a striped tshirt I had picked up at a garage sale because I knew I’d use the bright colors for something.

I did the neckline a little different than the instructions because I used the bias tape stuff from the original dress instead of sewing a ribbed neckline – I think it turned out pretty good – -I love the pleats on the pattern:

I went with a flutter sleeve and I think my gathers turned out pretty nice:

Instead of turning under the edge of the pocket, I zig zagged it on – – if you look close, it’s a little puckery, but not enough for me to mind:

I made this for a comfy go-to dress for my soon-to-be 2nd grader, but she’s off with her Grandma and Grandpa in Idaho for a couple of weeks – so I had to borrow Kate’s daughter for a model – she claimed she loved this dress and wanted one just like it for herself.  So it’s a little big on her since my daughter’s a little bigger than her, but it’s still cute:

Want to see more versions of what you can do with the Go To Signature Dress Pattern?  Here’s the blog tour info – each blog will use the pattern to create a dress – – -I think you should be able to click on each blog name to check out their version….enjoy!