The Brooklyn Frock - A Pattern Review

The pattern: The Brooklyn Frock
The designer: The Peek-a-boo Pattern Shop
Cost: Free
Special skills: Bias binding, gathering, button placket, button loops
Cut + First sew time: 2.5 hours
My sample size: 3T

Over the last few days, I've gotten the chance to finally sew up a couple of these cute little dresses. If you're looking for a cute little dress that's quick and easy to sew up, this one is a pretty good fit. I really love the asymmetry of this design and how you can fab it up with really funky fabrics or chill it out with sweet little prints like the ones I used.

Yardages/Cutting: It only takes about ten minutes to configure the pattern pieces and get the pieces cut out, especially if you're cutting out smaller sizes. The pattern pieces are clearly marked/labeled with what they are, how many to cut, and whether or not to cut on the fold. Yardage requirements are pretty accurate, but it can't hurt to buy an extra 1/3 yard just in case you forget to do a layout before you cut (the designer recommends laying out first). If you lay out your pieces prior to cutting, you will have less fabric waste and may even have a nice usable scrap left over. Because of having to cut both main pieces of the dress on the fold of such a small piece of fabric, it would have been nice to just have a cutting layout included in the pattern. Not a deal breaker.

Special Techniques: Most of the instructions are very clear, though you do need some experience, or at least access to information or techniques, to accomplish some of the detail on this dress. One of the special skills you will need for this dress is how to attach double fold bias tape. Attaching bias tape is not something explained in the instructions so you might have to pull out that dusty sewing book or hit up YouTube for some instruction. I've only used bias tape one before so I had no idea what I was doing the first time around on this dress. Another special technique used on a major part of this dress is gathering. There are two or three different ways to accomplish this, so brush up on whichever way you like best and have at it. Buttons and button plackets are another detail used here, though I'm not sure the type used on this dress is an actual placket since it's done more like a keyhole here.

Sewing: This pattern goes together pretty quickly once you know how to do all the techniques mentioned above. First sew time (the time it took to get through the whole pattern the first time) was about 2.5 hours.

One of the drawbacks to this pattern is that notches aren't included in the sleeve pattern pieces. This makes gathering at the shoulder and at the bottom of the sleeve a little more difficult since they're supposed to be isolated to the centers. Pocket placement could be marked. The sleeve binding also gave me some issues due to how they're sewn together. The instructions tell you to attach the binding and then sew the sleeve and dress sides together at once. The finish would look nicer if the sleeve and dress sides were sewn and then the bias was attached - but this would require that you know how to finish a bias binding. Completing this step the correct way would probably make the dress sleeve more comfortable for the wearer and it would look nicer, too. Although I didn't change the pattern in any way, I would add a little something around the bottom edge - maybe more binding.

This week's project

I've been totally pulled away from sewing the last couple of weeks and it's been completely awful. My days have been filled with work, and my evenings and weekends have been packed with activities for the kids. But this week, I'm dedicated to putting something together.

A few weeks ago, I got a cute pattern from the Peek-A-Boo Pattern Shop called the Brooklyn Frock. The Brooklyn pattern includes sizes three months to eight years old and it looks like it's still being offered for free on the website so go download it!

I bought enough fabric to make two dresses, so I should be ready to go. Except for the buttons, which I'll get today since I will be out and about yet again.

Look for a post next Saturday on how the first one turns out.

Off Topic Tuesday - The Winds of Change

They're roaring! But I can hear them loudest when I open my closet door.

Up until now, I've been pretty happy over the last three years to not have to change out of my pajamas if I didn't feel like it and I wasn't going anywhere. Big, soft cotton tees became my best friends, along with my favorite pair of yoga pants.

Three years, three girls, and a few pregnancy-induced body changes later, I need an entirely new wardrobe to accommodate a new job I've just been offered (Whee!). But don't worry. I won't leave you. I love to share on my blog and I love to sew and since I usually do both at night anyway, I don't suspect much of a change in that aspect of my life.

This past weekend, I went shopping with my mother-in-law. She's a shopper. I'm not. My most favorite place to shop for professional clothing is EXPRESS. I hadn't been in one since probably 2009. As soon as I walked into that store I had what I like to call EXPRESS overload. Everything looked immaculate and trendy and oh-so-fabulous. As I tried on regular length pants (way too long for this short-stuff), waist-peplum tops, and some of the flow-ier summery clothes, it all came crashing down and I realized I just can't wear the same things I could wear 3 or 4 years ago.

With this in mind, I've begun a search for trendy, professional clothes to sew for myself. I'd like to add at least one or two perfectly fitting pieces to my closet every month, which might be a pretty hefty goal at first. But I did walk out of EXPRESS, Macy's, and Target with some cute tops, pants, and even a dress and a sweater to get me started.

I plan to take a couple of Craftsy classes, maybe some private sewing classes, and from some alterations sites I've come across. If you have any suggestions for web-sites, online classes, or even cute office-appropriate outfits, I would love for you to leave a comment.

***Oh - and don't forget - tomorrow we welcome Wendy to the blog as a writer! Look for her first post!