Unicorn Chambray Dress – Burda 7179 Sewing Project

Little Miss has requested a dresses that button up in the front. She find’s them easier to get into by herself. Having failed to find just the right sewing pattern to satisfy her wishes I am endeavouring to hack this Burda 7179 ladies dress sewing pattern to fit nine year old Little Miss.

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Burda 7179 Sewing Pattern

Previously I’ve been making Little Miss’s dresses from the Wildflower Dress by Peek-A-Boo patterns which I absolutely love. It’s nice and easy to sew with a big twirly skirt or optional A-Line skirt for directional print fabrics.

For her school dresses I’ve been sewing up the Jump Rope from Oliver and S which Little Miss also loves. It’s a much more involved pattern but oh so for worth it to see her walking into school in such a beautifully finished school dress. Unfortunately Little Miss has just grown out of the largest size.

I’ve been googling, trying to find an alternative but without much success. Half of the problem is that I don’t know what this style of dress is called, in the UK we would call it a shirt dress but that gives me a lot of results T-Shirt dresses. It seems to be a very old fashioned, vintage style dress that’s not popular for children’s clothes anymore.

I had a bit of brainwave and thought I’d try to adapt an adults pattern. I picked up this Burda 7179 Sewing Pattern at a car boot sale for next to nothing. I actually bought it for myself as this style of vintage collared dress flatters my curvy figure very nicely.

I took Little Miss’s measurements and was surprised to find that she wasn’t too far off the size 6. The only significant alterations needed were to the height. The dress is made to fit a lady with a height of 168cm, Little Miss stands at just 126cm. Taking 40cm off the length of the skirt left it looking ridiculous so I shortened the shirt by 20cm instead.

In hindsight I should have also shortened the bodice by the remaining 20cm. Or maybe have split the difference and shortened both the skirt and bodice by 15cm each. To be perfectly honest I was intimidated by shortening the bodice and rushing to get this dress finished for an event that Little Miss had to attend and needed a smart dress for. The dress looks OK but it would have fitted much better with the shorter bodice.

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Unicorn Denim Sewing Fabric

I love denim. I like how it looks, breathable, comfortable, immensely practical and hardwearing. It goes with everything and is right for just about every occasion imaginable. I live in denim.

So when I saw this unicorn print chambray on sale in my local craft shop I knew my Little Miss would absolutely love it.

Unfortunately it was in their closing down sale so yay I got a bargain but booo no more local fabric shop. I say this all the time but please, if you’re lucky enough to still have a local craft shop and you want to keep having one, spend your money with them or they won’t be around for much longer.

The fabric behaved like a dream. I’m so used to using cheap synthetic fabrics that are difficult to work with so sewing with a good quality cotton fabric was a real luxury.

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Sewing Thread

I use Coats Moon Thread for all of my sewing projects. It’s a fantastic all rounder great for machine sewing, hand sewing, quilting and top stitching. Best of all it’s fantastic value. I use it for literally everything!

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I hope you have enjoyed reading about my adventures in sewing.

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Pin It Now, Sew It Later

I do hope my sewing project has inspired you to have ago at sewing and altering your own children’s dresses.

Pop this post in your Pinterest board so you can find it later.

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