Happy Hump Day Guys!
I was thrilled to be invited back to participate in the The Simple Life Pattern Company Holiday Blog Tour. What’s fun about this holiday blog tour there’s a daily giveaway inside the Simple Life Pattern Fan Group on Facebook for the duration of the tour, here’s what you could win:
My post will also include some affiliate links and a sale promotion code, so please look out for those throughout my post!
Last year I made the Pearl Zipper Top & Dress and it served as our Christmas outfit, and she also choose to wear it for her Father/Daughter dance, so I was excited to sew up another beautiful pattern from The Simple Life Pattern Company. [Full blog post HERE]
Pearl Zipper Dress 
Pearl Zipper Dress
This year instead of Christmas I decided to sew an outfit for our Thanksgiving Holiday celebrations, since it will be one of our last ones with our families in California and I plan on taking loads of pictures. I also wanted to challenge myself and decided that I would hack a pattern. I came across the Kinley’s Cascading Flounce Top & Dress and I knew it was the one!
Kinley’s Cascading Flounce Dress and Top features a beautiful neckline, optional bow and sash (full faux sewn on sash and a button back sash to cinch the waist in for a fitted look), a cascading flounce skirt and lots and lots of twirl! There are no closures on this pattern, it slides on over the child’s head. The skirt has four options including circle and gathered skirts for both the flounce and simple versions.
The Kinley is meant for woven fabric, and it has no closures, so I decided to modify it so that I could sew it up using knit fabric – with no closures it just goes straight over the head. The original pattern is also sleeveless so I used the Sleeve Add On to add some long sleeves to my version. This year, Sly Fox Fabrics was a gracious sponsor of the blog tour and I choose this gorgeous Sweater Knit called Moonstruck in Navy paired with a lovely Cabernet Double Brushed Poly Knit. The colors complimented each other perfectly.
Now let’s talk about how I modified this pattern to use knit! Keep in mind that this “thinking” won’t work the same with an original pattern that has closers. Here’s what will work for a woven pattern that does not have closures.
1. I choose the finished size from the pattern chart that best matched Abigail’s chest measurements. Her chest measures 22 inches and so I choose the smallest size from the pattern and modified and blended the length to match her height. Bodice, skirt and sleeve pattern widths remained the same per the pattern, but the length of each were modified to allocate for her height. Because knit stretches, it will fit nicely. I do suggest doing a muslin in a similar type fabric just to be sure.
2. Add fusible knit interfacing to the neckline.
3. I did the circle skirt option with the flounce, and because this skirt is layered it will tend to be a little heavier than most, so adding clear elastic to the bodice seam will keep the shape of the waist nicely.
And now for some action shots!
Not only does the choice of fabric make this dress super soft and comfortable, but it also makes for THE MOST AMAZING TWIRL!
If you’d like to grab yourself a copy of this pattern, you’ll be happy to know that for the duration of the tour, there is a 40% off all patterns in the SLCPO shop using the code below:
That’s it for my stop on the blog tour today guys, be sure the check out the other amazing versions of Holiday sews ranging from casual to super fancy, here’s the line up:
11/12 Kutti Couture — Pear Berry Lane
11/13 Candice Ayala.com — It’s Liesel
11/14 Kainara Stitches — SewSophieLynn
11/15 Sunflower Seams — Sew and Tell Project
3 thoughts on “The SLPCO Holiday Blog Tour 2019”