Our Urban Princesses!
Our Urban Princesses!
Our Urban Princesses!
I’ve asked Artistic Artifacts staffer Nancy McCarthy to share her experiences with the adorable Urban Princess pattern by Olive Ann Designs that we’ve just added to our website. Nancy was a home economics teacher with a specialty in clothing and textiles, so her expertise is invaluable.
On Saturday, September 19 Nancy was featured for our regularly scheduled 9:30 am ET Facebook Live Videos! Watch our archived video as Nancy shared construction tips and techniques she applied to this pattern that can be translated to other garment construction that both beginning and experienced sewists will enjoy! (Plus there was a surprise sneak peek of some just arrived fabric that will soon be available on our website!
Guest post by Nancy McCarthy
This super cute dress was a hit with my three- and four-year old granddaughters, pictured above! This pattern offers lots of design possibilities in terms of fabric choices and comes in children’s sizes 2-8. Urban Princess also includes a pattern for an 18 in. doll dress to match.
My fabric choices for their dresses coordinate closely with their personalities, as you might imagine from the photos!
- For my sweet four-year old’s dress: I chose from Tilda Fabrics (Norwegian designer Tone Finnanger), with ruffles cut from a precut fat quarter pack.
- For my spicy three-year old’s green dress, a selection of exciting Kaffe Fassett fabrics.
I lined the bodices and the gathered shoulder straps per the pattern, using fabric left from cutting the garment pieces. By the way, I didn't realize when I chose the main dress fabrics that both are directional! Fortunately, the pattern layout in the pattern guide is for a directional layout.
This dress doesn't use much fabric, especially the ruffles, so you certainly might be able to stitch your own with stash fabric left over from other projects.
I want to share a couple of notes on the back of the dress — watch video
- The back bodice neckline and button opening are bias edges that I decided needed some interfacing for stability.
- The center back ruffle panel is created on a long, narrow base triangle (bias edges!) that fits into the two back pieces of the dress (more stretchy bias seams!) and the angle of the cutting line for the back pieces means that those pieces take a lot more fabric than might be expected. The end result is a cute swingy skirt that’s definitely worth it!
Email Judy Gula or learn more about contacting Artistic Artifacts. 
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