Hobbies and Crafts

Bella Sunshine Designs’ Coffee Shop Lace Dress

2015-08-19 12.41.58-1I’m so excited to share with you this new dress I made for Little Gal. It’s brand new from Bella Sunshine Designs (affiliate link), and yes, I was a pattern tester, and received the Coffee Shop Dress pattern in exchange for honest feedback on the pattern as I sewed it up. I really enjoy Melissa’s designs; you’ll remember I sewed up a bunch of Bow Tie Leggings and then the matching mother-daughter Kelly’s Twirl Skirts. So, when I saw that she was doing a new pattern test, I signed right up. After all, I figured, it would be a good motivator for unpacking my sewing machine. 

I already am planning on making at least one more dress from this pattern – I saw it and I thought, “This would be absolutely perfect as a Christmas dress!” So, you’ll be seeing another dress made from this in the not terribly distant future. 

The pattern directions are easy to follow, it’s definitely a more intermediate level pattern than those I’d tested previously. When you look at my photographs, you’ll notice that my edgestitching wasn’t the neatest it could be. I was able to unpack some of my sewing goodies, but not all…and my wonderful husband had to run out to get me a new buttonhole foot. Meanwhile, I had some bobbin and needle problems that I did solve by the time I got to the hem. When I do the dress again, I’ll size the chest down to a size 12 months (this is the 18 months size on my gal…she’s petite!

In all, I think it’s a super-cute dress pattern. The mistakes are because, well…sometimes you’re trying to sew quickly because it took several days to get in a place where you had the printer unpacked and the sewing machine unpacked…and when you finally clear your schedule…bam…where’s the box with all the feet and extra needles and pins and…fabric scissors? 

My Little gal though? She LOVES this dress. She wore it all day the day I made it, and she keeps rooting through her laundry to carry it around the house and say “Pitty dess!” Silly girl.  I may get her some cowgirl boots to go with it for a wild west thing we’re going to go to next weekend. 🙂 

Here are some more pictures of her in the dress! Here’s the link – as of posting, the pattern is on sale for $6.50 at Bella Sunshine Designs (the promotion runs through 8/26/2015), and if you enter the code “CAFFEINE” you can save $3 on another pattern purchased at the same time!

Ronda Bowen

Ronda Bowen is a writer, editor, and independent scholar. She has a Master of Arts in Philosophy from Northern Illinois University and a B.A. in Philosophy, Pre-Graduate Option, Honors in the Major from California State University, Chico. When she is not working on client projects from her editorial consulting business, she is writing a novel. In her free time, she enjoys gourmet cooking, wine, martinis, copious amounts of coffee, reading, watching movies, sewing, crocheting, crafts, hanging out with her husband, and spending time with their teenage son and infant daughter.

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