This sweet girl is all about fashion.  She started online window shopping for school clothes in July.  She loves to browse all the trendy websites and is constantly filling shopping carts with the latest looks.  Unfortunately, her tall, lanky frame doesn’t work for a lot of ready-to-wear clothing.  She now knows that she can bring me her wish list and we can shop for fabric and patterns to recreate her wants to fit her body.  It’s why we sew, right?!  We all want clothing that speaks to our personalities and tastes and fits us better than our options off the rack.  I’m so glad I get to give her this lesson at such a young age.

We’ve been seeing tons of amazing checkered looks in stores this season.  She fell in love with this dress and I knew we could easily make it happen to work for her.  The inspiration dress is a touch short to wear to school and I knew with my girls legs it’d be almost scandalous on her.  As soon as I saw this Checkered Double Brushed Poly hit the shop I knew we had to have it.  My daughter squealed when it arrived!

Because of the drape of brushed poly, I went with a wide swing dress pattern.  The Groove Dress pattern from MadeIt Patterns is a favorite in the children’s sewing community.  This was my first time sewing it up and I know it will be a staple pattern in our house now.

The twirl factor of the Groove Dress just can’t be beat!  Every girl loves a good spinning dress.  This pattern is fitted in the chest and shoulders and then flares at the underarm for a flattering, cute silhouette.  There are teen and women’s versions as well, in case you need to recreate this dress for yourself.

This fabric sewed up beautifully.  I love sewing brushed poly with my serger.  The brushed texture clings together and makes it so easy to minimally clip/pin your seams and just go for it.  This dress was done, cut to hem, in less than an hour.  I highly recommend using hem tap when hemming thin knits, especially brushed poly.  It makes for such a clean, crisp hem and makes turning a curved hem a breeze.

I love that CaliFabrics makes it so easy to make this girl’s dreams come true.  Cali brings in so many high-end designer fabrics and great quality knits so you can recreate all your favorite trends and styles.  I get so excited when I get my emails with all the new arrivals because I know there will be some beautiful fabrics I can’t live without.