This is the Isabella pleated dress by Ollie and Annie Collection. Isn't it adorable? I will go ahead and tell you upfront the dress version is supposed to be longer then this, atleast to your knees and your waist line will probably be a bit lower, but that was my bad during testing :) As I have already mentioned BTS is beating me up, but when I make commitments to do these things I follow through, and I've found I need sewing a little bit for my sanity so I managed to fit this in! When I told Ms. Stephanie Gracie Bug's measurements she gave us a 2 so I just said ok! We most definitely needed a 3 in length for this girl! It's all good though because this dress also comes in a tunic length and I just love it with these tights...I may get her some that are thicker and not see through for this dress, but she looks just divine!
If any of you follow Zulily you may remember seeing the little a-line jumper a while back with the squirrels on it! I immediately fell in love, but I don't think I liked the price a lot so it went on my list of to-dos! I've known this jumper was coming for a while and had kept the squirrel idea in the back of my mind the whole time....it won! I found the embroidery design at Sweet Peas Place...I actually bought like 6 designs from her just a couple of weeks ago and I have used all of them except for 2...she has some pretty awesome stuff! My machine was acting up a little bit so I couldn't complete the flowers on our little girl squirrel, but I have enough on there that no one will ever know unless I tell so I decided the other squirrel could just be a boy since they are in fact with a heart...it by the way was a freebie from Original Stitches, how awesome is that?!?
And do you recognize the top...it's our High Low Tide Top by Patterns For Pirates! I loved the print so I thought why not, it worked out wonderfully!
Anyway back to our Isabella! The back of this one is done with button and loop closures, very simple to do and super cute! Covered buttons would be awesome I think, but for the simplicity of our dress I just went with plain gold buttons, they actually match her boots pretty well...I scored those at Davis Country Store for 1/2 off the other day!
And on to the most difficult, NOT DIFFICULT at all part of this dress...the pleats! This is only the second time I've ever made pleats and with the Isabella Stephanie has a chart for the back and the front that makes it incredibly simple...no measuring and marking, no eyeballing, you just match your fabric to your chart and mark it! I marked this one on the right side and after I got started I realized it would've been a lot easier had I marked the wrong side, BUT, I still managed. Her directions were simple for me to follow...even when I made the super huge mistake of cutting my fabric a few inches too long or actually probably NOT unchecking the FIT TO PAGE option when printing so my pleating chart was OFF (not sure which was the problem) BUT ALWAYS MAKE SURE YOU UNCHECK THAT OPTION WITH ANY PDF, it's very important...I was able to just use her directions and add an extra pleat to each side on the front and back and solve the dilemma :) All in all I'm super pleased with my first major pleating project, a lot simpler then pulling strings and making ruffles and you have a super pretty result.
Thank you all for spending a few minutes with me today! I'm about to have to run and pick-up m big ol' Pre-K boy, yes, I did start this last night and then decided sleep was a little bit more important!
Make sure that you keep an eye out on Friday for the grand release of the Isabella Pleated Dress by Ollie and Annie if you use code ISABELLA20 you can save 20%...FRIDAY ONLY and make sure to go over and join the Pattern Group as well! I think Stephanie has a blog post about this dress so make sure you check that out too! I can see this done in plaids for Christmas and VELVET...so many ideas, I think it's an absolute must have for any collection and as always it's an easy to follow very well written pattern!
Happy Sewing!
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