Things have been a bit quiet on the sewing front recently besides some last minute sewing for a spur of the moment 3 week trip to Cairns (what better way to beat the winter blues than a trip to North Queensland) so there hasn’t been a lot to blog about until now!
I was lucky enough to be a pattern tester for the re vamp of straight grain patterns Tinny dress
I don’t sew for little miss as much as I probably should so when An from straight grain patterns put out the call for testers for the re vamp of the Tinny dress I jumped at the chance. Despite still being on holiday An was very lovely and let me still test for her. (YAY!)
If you are not familiar with The Tinny dress, it is a vintage inspired mix and match girls dress. Originally it came with 4 collar, 3 skirt and 2 sleeve options. Which has now been expended to 8 collar, 4 skirt and 3 sleeve options.
Since This was a test for a girls pattern, and Little Miss was the one I was sewing for I let her make all the choices for this one, and I must say, for a 4 year old I’m pretty impressed with her choices.
She chose the built in cap sleeve option bodice, regular Peter Pan collar and gathered skirt.
As for the fabric after much deliberation she settled some spotty stretch tulle from the stash for the collar and the cutest border print that was purchased from the Fabric closet on our recent holiday, the print is aptly named Hip hooray by Lizzie McKay for blend fabrics.
The dress went together beautifully with no problems at all. The instructions and diagrams and well detailed and easy to understand. At the request of the little miss I deviated slightly in my test and added inseam pockets to the skirt (even at 4 she knows how awesome pockets are in a dress) I also inserted a lapped zipper instead of the recommended hidden this was only because I prefer them in little girls dresses as I find them a bit more durable. I have 2 older nieces who if I made this dress for I would certainly use the hidden zip as recommended.
The verdict from Little miss is that she loves it and wants more. I have a feeling letting her have free reign might have created a monster as she has asked if we can go fabric shopping so she can pick her own fabric from now on.
All in all this is a well executed and delightful girls pattern with so many cute options to mix and match that I think I’ll get many years worth of party dresses even as the little miss gets older, the fabric choices on the other hand, may be an on going topic of contention though😉
*An is also offering a discount on the revamped tinny dress when you use the code TINNYTESTER20 at the check out.
Dressed in pretty little things 
This dress is gorgeous! I’m in the middle of making almost the same dress (without collar) for myself! I laughed about your daughter wanting to shop for her own dress fabric – my 3 year old does that! I really enjoy your blog! Allison @ http://www.thetallmamastyle.blogspot.com
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Oh thank you. As I was making this I was rhinking I would love one in my size haha. I think Im going to have a fair bit of trouble in future makes with miss 4 but Im hoping by encouraging it she will want ro learn to sew and make her own stuff too 😉
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Thank you so much for making such a stunning Tinny. It was a dream having you a a tester, and I absolutely adore your beautiful pictures. ❤
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Oh thank you! It was such a pleasure to be part of x
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I LOVE your Tinny and the fact that your daughter helped design it (and she has such good taste too). My 2 year old came to sit on my lap while I was looking at fabric online. She was getting so excited about all the patterns and I just couldn’t say no. Needless to say, I spent way more $ than was initially going to. Ha ha 😉
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