It is certainly a match-made in heaven when you combine beautiful organic cotton fabrics with fresh and modern clothing patterns for kids. So when Birch Fabrics and Straightgrain Patterns teamed up for this blog tour, I was in! The new Whistle collection by Jenny Ronen is such a sweet and whimsical collection that inspired me to make a Nova dress….probably my favorite of An’s dress patterns.
Out of the Whistle fabric collection, I chose to use Birch’s organic quilt poplin. However, there are so many great jersey knits available too. I had such a hard time deciding which patterns I wanted to use. But then I remembered how much my SIL loved the Nova Dress I made for a niece and I wanted to make one for her daughter. I chose a simpler small scale print like this Tiny Steps in Blush which would help show off the smocking and then chose Treehouse for a fun surprise lining.
What I love about Straightgrain Patterns are the number of options with each of her patterns. This Nova Dress, alone has 140 different combinations! They make for such an incredible value and I love how I can make a unique dress for all of my nieces. Now that it is officially fall, I made this version of the Nova dress with long sleeves so it can be worn with bare legs right now, but can go into the winter with some thick cable knit stockings and boots later.
This pattern has 4 different types of pleating and the honeycomb smocking is my favorite. I tell everyone to learn dress-making techniques on little girl versions and I completely learned to do this following An’s thorough instructions. I just love all of the texture and visual impact.
The smocking does take extra time and there is hand sewing involved to tack the pleats together. But it is all worth it! I like using contrasting thread to highlight the design and to complement the fabric.
For the blog tour, I inserted an invisible zipper versus the ribbon tie I used on this version. Considering the seasons, a fully covered back was more appropriate and I love the ease of a zipper for dressing. I happened to just buy an invisible zipper foot for my machine and of course, don’t know why I waited so long! With the right foot, you can hardly tell there is a zipper at all!
Another special feature I added to this dress are the buttons. I had an old kit for making covered buttons stashed away and knew these little birdies would be perfect for them. I used light interfacing to help stabilize the fabric and cut them to size. It was so easy that I know there will be many more covered buttons in my future.
Birch Organic fabric handled and washed very well. It has the same weight as other designer quilt fabrics, but that GOTS certification gives you so much peace of mind. I’m so happy to send this dress off to my niece and know its all organic 🙂
To follow along on the rest of the Birch Fabric x Straightgrain Patterns Blog Tour, check out of the blog links below:
Birch – Knee Socks and Goldilocks – Petrol & Mint – The Crafty Kitty – Christinaa – Just Add Fabric
Love You Sew (you are here) – My Petite Sophie – While She Was Sleeping – StraightGrain – Made By Sara
Project Details:
- Fabric: Whistle fabric by Jenny Ronen for Birch Organic Fabrics
- Thread: Gutermann #370
- Dress Pattern: Nova by Straightgrain Patterns
- Sizing: 3T
- Pattern Modifications: None
- Model: Liliana P.
Happy Sewing Friends!
Cristy
Fabric and patterns were provided by Birch Organics and Straightgrain Patterns for this post. As always, all opinions are my own. I’ve bought products from both companies before this post and definitely will following it.
