My Little Miss is growing up and out of most of my children’s sewing patterns. She’s not quite ready for ladies sewing patterns just yet. She has a very particular vintage girly style, button front dresses and big twirly skirts in vintage prints. I was looking for new sewing patterns for her for ages, tween patterns just aren’t common. And then I discovered Violette Fields Threads. They do loads and loads of vintage style dress patterns and most of them are available in tween sizes. My Little Miss is in dress heaven!
Come and see how I got on sewing up the Delaney Dress.
Delaney Dress Sewing Pattern from Violette Fields Threads
Violette Fields Threads offer lots of vintage style sewing patterns with couture-inspired style AND easy-to-follow instructions.
I love vintage style dresses almost as much as my Little Miss does. But vintage patterns can be tricky to follow. The instructions are vague and the techniques needlessly complex. Every time I sew with a vintage pattern or even just an older paper pattern I miss the clear step by step instructions typical of modern digital patterns.
My Little Miss is currently wearing the largest size for many of my children’s sewing patterns. But she isn’t quite ready to fit into ladies sizes. I’ve tried altering adult’s sewing patterns for her but the length adjustments are quite extreme and so they leave the dress looking out of proportion. But at the same time my Little Miss is already bigger in the chest than the smallest ladies sizes. There’s a lot of adjustments to make and it feels like a lot of extra work.
So I’ve spent some time hunting for teen sized sewing patterns in the vintage style my Little Miss loves to wear. I’d almost lost hope when I came across Violette Fields Threads. Their designs look like something out of a fairy-tale – all my Little Miss’s wardrobe dreams come true!
I bought the Delaney Dress pattern with a little trepidation, what if the instructions were vague and complex like a mash up of old vintage patterns? The designs look so couture, I worried my sewing skills might not be up to the job. I’ll persevere of course, anything to make my Little Miss happy. But I needn’t have worried. The instructions are delightfully clear and the techniques used straightforward. I wouldn’t say these are beginner sewing patterns but totally comfortable for an intermediate sewist.
Little Miss opted for the 3/4 length sleeve. I love that the Delaney Dress includes different skirt options. Little Miss loves full circle skirts and I sew them for her whenever I can but they don’t work well with directional prints and they take a lot of fabric. I was so glad that I had plenty of this beautiful autumnal fabric to make her a full circle skirt.
Digital Sewing Patterns
Digital sewing patterns are fantastic for kids clothes because you just print the size you want, no tracing or messing about trying to preserve the larger sizes of the pattern for using as your child grows.
They generally come with loads of different options and a wider size range than traditional paper sewing patterns. Most of the digital sewing patterns I own go all the way up to the teenage years.
If you are new to using digital sewing patterns take a look at this tutorial for simple steps to printing and assembling digital sewing patterns.
Sewing Fabric
I told my Little Miss to go through my inherited fabric stash and pick out any fabrics that took her fancy. I took her (rather large) pile of choices and then worked out what I could make with each piece depending on the size and type of fabric. It was a really good stash busting exercise that got her wardrobe filled and cleared out a whole box of my fabric stash.
She picked out this beautiful autumnal fabric. It’s not to my taste but it was a good sized piece of good quality fabric so of course I was hording it.
I get most of my fabric from Minerva Crafts. They have a great selection and very reasonable prices.
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!
I buy it in bulk and put the surplus in my Etsy shop. There’s loads of colours to choose from.
I recommend the grey shades. They don’t show up on most fabrics so you’ll have less need to change your thread between projects. It also saves you money because you can get grey threads in bigger bulk at a cheaper price.
Sewing Notions
I picked these buttons out of my inherited button stash. They have a lovely gold rim with fabric covered centres. I’m loving how well they match this vintage style fabric.
I couldn’t find anything exactly like them online. Minerva do a huge range of buttons if you didn’t inherit more than you could use in a lifetime.
The collar of the Delaney Dress is reinforced with interfacing to give it a little more body. I used my favourite lightweight interfacing. I find it is perfect for collars. It doesn’t make them too stiff but to reinforces the fabric just enough so that the collar stands on it’s own.
Sewing Darts
The Delaney Dress gets it’s lovely feminine shape from the darts in the bodice. There aren’t difficult but you do need to be accurate.
Darts are wedges of fabric sewn and pressed to one side on the inside of the garment. They help to create a three dimensional form so that the garment fits around the curves of the body better. Darts can be straight or curved, single pointed triangles or double pointed diamonds.
Follow these simple steps to making darts.
Sewing Flat Sleeves
Sewing sleeves can be intimidating but it’s a key skill that you will need for a lot of sewing projects. Keep practicing and it will get easier with time.
Follow these simple steps to sewing sleeves.
Side Seam Pockets
The Delaney features practical side seam pockets. They can be hidden in the side seams of skirts, dresses and trousers. They are super easy to sew just follow these simple steps to sew your own Side Seam Pockets.
Gathering
Gathering creates fullness in an area of a garment, such as a skirt. It can be used for fitting or style purposes. You sew long temporary stitches across the seam then pull the stitches up to gather the fabric before sewing it onto another piece.
Follow these simple steps to perfect gathering.
Interfacing
Interfacing is a stiffener which is added to parts of a garment that may need extra structure or firmness ushc as collars, cuffs waistbands and facings.
Follow these simple steps to learn how to sew with interfacing.
Sewing a Two-Piece Collar
A flat collar lies against the garment, sometimes with some subtle shaping giving it a little lift to roll over the neckline. It’s relatively straightforward to sew a flat collar. A two-piece collar has a separate stand that holds it up around the neck. It’s a bit more involve to sew than a flat collar.
Follow these simple steps to sew a two-piece collar.
Sewing a Hem
The final step in many sewing projects is sewing the hem.
Follow these simple steps to sewing hems.
Sewing Button Holes
Learning to sew buttonholes will open up a wonderful world of shirts, dresses and more. The simplest and fastest method is to use a sewing machine.
Follow these simple steps to sewing perfect Buttonholes.
Take a Look at Some Other Girls Dress Sewing Projects
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 your own Delaney Dresses.
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The Great British Sewing Bee is back for 2026!
Patrick and Esmé are back for another series of The Great British Sewing Bee! The new season starts on Tuesday 14th July on BBC One at 8pm!
To celebrate the return of our favourite sewing show, Minerva are offering 20% off all fabric for the whole run of the series! This includes fabrics inspired by the show, Minerva Exclusive prints, Core Range essentials, ex-designer deadstock and much more.
- Use the code AWBEEBACK to save 10% off all fabric – Minerva Craft Club members save 20%
- If you’re not a member yet, treat yourself and sign up today! You’ll save an extra 10% off everything you spend at Minerva for the next 12 months!!
- Shop all fabric at https://www.minerva.com/mp/GBP?page=1&sort=trending&type=Fabrics
- Offer ends Wednesday 30th September
A Little Bit About Me . . .
Hi there! Thank you so much for stopping by my little corner of the interweb. I’m Bridie.
I’m a busy mum to two small humans, two guinea pigs and a bouncing bundle of border collie puppy. We live in not so sunny Lancashire in the north of England.
I’m a very frugal crafter so I sew with a lot of free patterns, repurposed fabrics and thrifty hacks. I’m always on the look out for deals and ways to cut the cost of sewing.
I’ll show you all the best ways to craft on a tight budget so you can still create a life you love.
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