It’s SPRING – yay! Although our Winter actually wasn’t that bad this year, it’s nice to look forward to sunshine and warmer days.
Over the month of September we are going to be celebrating the release of the two newest Make It Perfect patterns, Skippy & Joey with a blog tour…hopping our way around the world to check out some dresses made by talented sewers. First up in the Skippy & Joey Hop are a few of my pattern testers (click on the links to read and see more from each person)…
Teresa from Dandelion Drift sewed a Big Joey for her daughter who loves to wear anything sewn from knit fabric. I LOVE her fabric pairing – bright floral + skinny stripes are a winner!
Marnie from Horris & Deedle sewed her two year old a few Joey dresses – this lemon print?….awesome! And she modified the pattern slightly to add a hood for extra warmth.
I laugh everytime I see the pics of Marnie’s daughter with her pink sunnies, pushing her hands deep into the kangaroo pouch pockets of this striped Joey dress!!
Justine’s daughter was feeling a little camera-shy but looks adorable in her Joey dress. I love how Justine managed to cut the pocket from a scrap of knit fabric – what a great way to use up those little bits of knit fabrics you have lying around! See more at JustMeJay.
Peta from Etcetera or Whatever used this fabulous European knit to sew a Joey dress for her daughter. Doesn’t it look great?!
And finally, back to Marnie from Horris & Deedle with some more amazing dresses – this time for herself! I think this Skippy dress is my personal fave…such a lovely combination of blues and a very wearable everyday dress.
This dress is made from a combination of stretch lace with jersey lining – such a pretty dress and that scalloped hem creates a much more formal look.
And another one, this time sewn from merino wool (loooooove) with a lace applique detail around the neckline.
I hope you’ve loved seeing all of these dresses as much as I have! I’ll be back with more soon and in the meantime, if you would like sew these dresses for yourself you can purchase them here:
I’m back with another version of the Joey dress today. This one is made with long sleeves and a snuggly cowl neck. And you know how much we love our cowl necks around here!
This dress is really cosy, and that Heather Ross strawberry knit fabric is so soft and cuddly.
The hem of the long sleeves are bound with a strip of fabric, I like being able to use a contrast fabric for the binding for a more playful look – the contrast suits this particular dress nicely. The contrast fabric is a solid from Lillestoff. I can’t remember the name of it now, but it is a lovely deep plum colour.
The Joey pattern is avaliable at a bargain price of just $10 until 8pm tonight so get in quick if you want to save yourself some dollars! This is such a great dress – with short, 3/4, and long sleeve lengths it is definitley a pattern you can sew all year ’round!
SUPPLIES: Make It Perfect, Joey sewing pattern Heather Ross, Briar Rose knit, Strawberry in lilac Lillestoff solid plum
Thankyou for your lovely comments and excitement on Facebook, Instagram and the blog about my new patterns, Skippy & Joey. I’m excited to see you guys take these patterns and turn them into great dresses for yourselves and your girls!
The Skippy dress pattern was actually written up over 3 months ago, and in that time I’ve had a chance to make quite a few variations for myself, sisters and friends. This is one of my favourites.
I’m a sucker for prints and patterns in fabric. For kids, this is great, but clothing for myself requires a bit of thought and planning to create a garment that incorporates my favourite prints but doesn’t look like it belongs to a little kid! This Lillestoff raindrops print is one of my absolute favourite jersey knits and I’ve been saving it for a special occasion.
Now, a dress made entirely of these raindrops would feel a bit like a nightie to me! But to incorporate it into a very wearable dress, I simply cut the front top piece out of the raindrops and everything else from a dark grey solid jersey.
I love love love this dress – it’s definitley in my favourites and does it pass the wearable test? Well, I’ve been wearing it at least once a week for the last 3 months so I think it gets a big tick in that department!
These kangaroo pockets are becoming a favourite of mine too. I can easily stash my keys in them during school drop off with Harvey on my hip and I find it comfortable to have a pocket to stuff my hands in too.
The gathered sleeves add a pretty touch too, taking the Skippy dress to another level and giving you the chance to create much more than just a tshirt-style dress.
For Lil’s Joey dress, I choose a fun print for the main dress and sleeve pieces, but used a solid hot pink for all of the trims.
I love how the solid pink breaks up the busy print and adds a bit of extra detail to the dress.
The triangle jersey came from Ixat, but not sure if it is still in stock? It is a gorgeous print, the fabric is a little thin but fine for this dress though.
I love how you can change the look of these dresses simply by being creative with your fabric choices. There are lots of different pieces involved in these dresses, so the options to mix and match fabrics, prints and colours are endless!
SUPPLIES: Make It Perfect, Skippy pattern Make It Perfect, Joey pattern Lillestoff raindrops jersey knit Charcoal jersey knit Pink triangles on grey jersey knit Solid hot pink jersey knit
Welcome back for the release of my second pattern! After designing Skippy I knew that this style of dress would be perfect for little girls too. I made a few trial versions for Lil and was so happy with them that I got to work on creating the girl’s version of this dress…
A mini version of the Make It Perfect women’s Skippy dress, Joey is a pretty, everyday dress for little girls made with your favourite stretchy knit fabric.
There’s plenty to smile about with its pretty gathered sleeves in a choice of three lengths, an optional cowl neck and a swingy skirt.
Joey has a great, everyday shape featuring handy kangaroo-style pouch pockets.
Make it in a solid colour or mix and match prints and patterns for endless different looks.
Easy to put on, comfortable to wear and perfect for play. Joey is a dress for all tree-climbing, puddle-jumping and bike-riding adventures!
Seriously…this dress on little girls is the cutest thing ever! My testers have made up some awesome dresses, each of them with unique fabric mixing and matching – I’ll share them soon! I love how Joey suits all ages too, from tiny 1 year olds all the way up to a size 10, it is such an adaptable pattern. And with three different sleeve lengths and an optional cowl neck, you can make a dress to suit any weather and any occasion!
When it came to naming both the Skippy and Joey dresses, I really struggled for awhile. My Mum and sisters were brainstorming with me one afternoon and I suggested that maybe the name should refer to the influence of the kangaroo-style pouch pocket and we (okay, Mum!) remembered watching Skippy the Bush Kangaroo on TV as a little girl and I was sold! I love the iconic Aussie reference, being an Aussie pattern designer and all.
I stole my cute niece Michaela one afternoon when she was visiting us from Sydney last month to be my model. (Much to Lil’s disgust…maybe she wont complain when I ask her for a photo now!) Michaela was a trooper – it was really cold and she kept smiling and playing in between her chattering teeth!
I can’t wait to show you more variations of the Joey dress, knit fabrics are becoming more and more popular and we are lucky to have a growing amount of great quality fabrics to choose from now. And for those of you scared of sewing with knits…I’m going to be posting some detailed information about sewing with knits using only your sewing machine very soon. You don’t need anything fancy and once you’ve got the hang of it, I promise there will be no stopping you!
Joey comes in two size ranges (0-5 and 6-10) and you can purchase a PDF copy here. For the next week, Joey will be on sale at a discounted introductory price of just $10! (Sale ends Thursday 14th July.)
Paper copies of Joey will be arriving in stores very soon. Check out my stockists to order if you prefer a paper pattern.
I’ve been sewing a mountain of Skippy and Joey dresses so will be sure to flood the blog with them over the next little while and show you lots and lots of different options!
SUPPLIES: Make It Perfect, Joey pattern Lillestoff organic cotton jersey in petrol
