Following my delightful experience of creating a Barbie themed dress using the Very Easy Vogue 9100 a few weeks back, I knew that this pattern would become my next go-to. After being invited to my darling friends baby shower and hearing that the theme was May Gibbs, (a classic Australian children’s author known for creating the gum nut children) I instantly knew that I would be using up some May Gibbs fabric that’s been in my fabric stash for quite some time. As an Aussie kid, I loved May Gibbs and the gum nut babies so I’m so happy that this was to be the theme for my friends baby shower. Is it a little extra to sew an entire dress for a baby shower? Absolutely. Am I still going to do it? You betcha.

As mentioned above, I have had some May Gibbs themed cotton fabric in my stash for quite a while. I don’t completely remember where I got it from, as it was well before the time that Spotlight got the license to sell their own May Gibbs fabric, but I’m pretty sure it might have been this store. They still have two of the designs I ordered and I am pretty sure that their designs were exclusive so with my powers of deduction, I’m pretty sure that’s where my fabric came from. Moving on, I purchased around 4 meters of this cotton fabric and love how vibrant and bright the colours and design were. The quality of the cotton was excellent and found it nice and sturdy without being too thick. I also planned to line the bodice with the same printed fabric as it’s just so cute. Plus, I knew my friend was having a boy so something with a pop of blue was a nice touch for a dress overall.

As we’ve already sewn the Very Easy Vogue V9100 pattern (see here for full review), I’m not going to go into too much detail about the pattern but I will give a brief recap. The pattern features a princess seamed bodice with curved shoulder straps for an ideal bodice fit. The pattern comes with customisable cup sizes for an optimal fit and personally I will be sewing a size 12 for a c cup bust. The dress has a centre back zip and although I’d love to have lapped zipper, I will be just installing a zip in any way I can for now. As for the skirt, I will be creating my own rectangle gather skirt and adding pockets to hide my snacks in.

Sew, let’s get started. After cutting out all my pattern pieces, I made sure that my bodice wouldn’t have any awkward pattern placement (such as a cyclops baby because I don’t want to terrify anyone). As I planned on using the main fabric as also my lining fabric, I got to play around with pattern placement and choose the best pieces for the outer lining. The bodice has 10 pattern pieces (including lining) and it was honestly quite simple to put together. Having sewn Buttericks 6453/Simplicity 9291, I personally find sewing the princess seams of the Vogue V9100 easier of a process so I’d recommend this pattern if you are new to princess seams. The back seams are all straight so that’s the only part of this process that can be a challenge.

Just in case you don’t remember my process of sewing this pattern the first time, the pattern asks for the front bodice and lining to be attached, before combing it with the back bodice and lining. Normally, or at least what I’ve seen done in countless other patterns is that the outer fabric is joined at the shoulders (front and back) as is the lining, then the lining is attached to the outer fabric before being flipped inside out and finished down the side seams. As this pattern wants a more couture finish and also because the shoulder straps are quite thin, turning the dress inside out is a little more challenging but personally, I find the finish better and I’m happy to crocodile wrestle the dress the right way out. If you are sewing this pattern for yourself, I would say it’s up to you how you want to finish this dress. I will continue to sew my lined bodices by attaching the lining to the outer fabric as opposed to just sewing the shoulders together with the lining already attached. You do you boo. Since my first attempt at this pattern, I have been wanting to shorted the shoulder straps by about half an inch so I did take them in a little.

With my bodice complete, it was time to create my skirt. Like most of my dress skirts, I start by laying out my fabric on the floor and measuring out 27″ increments which are to become my panels. I cut out about 3 or 4 depending on how full I want my skirt and then I sew these panels together. For this particular dress I went with three panels the width of the fabric and 27 inches in length and it gave me the fullness I was after. I cut out some pockets and once I had sewn my skirt rectangle together, I marked out the waistline into 4 quarters. Grabbing my scissors I then cut a slit an inch longer than the pocket opening down the first and last quarter points as this is where my pockets would go. sewing in the pockets themselves wasn’t an issue and very soon I had two glorious snack holes for my dress.

To gather my skirt I used the dental floss method which involves sewing a zig zag stitch over some dental floss along the top seam allowance of the waistline. Once sewn, I then push the fabric along the dental floss to create gathers and I can adjust my skirt to fit my bodice waistline. I personally find this method of gathering my skirt really quick and simple and I can even reuse the floss (remove it once your skirt and bodice are sewn together) multiple times. Once I was happy with my gathers, I attached my skirt to my bodice and turned my sights to the back zip. I already had a light blue zip in my stash so it was a nice and simple process all up. The final thing I had to do was close up the back of the dress and then hem my skirt. Overall this dress took me most of the afternoon to complete and it really is a simple and easy pattern.

Since the creation of this dress, I have worn it several times, even weekly at one point, because it was fun to style with cardigans and I got to wear my May Gibbs Erstwilder brooches with my outfits. I love the brightness and fun of this dress and it’s made me really want to use the rest of my May Gibbs fabric. I find the fit of this dress really flattering but I will admit I still need to tinker with the shoulder strap length as it’s just not perfect yet. I’m so glad that I got to sew this pattern again as I really do find it quick and easy. I feel like I will use this pattern as my new go-to pattern for when I just want to whip up a simple and fun dress.

As the year is slowly coming to a close and I know I will get busier which means that having a pattern like this might end up being a bit of a life saver. I think this might be pattern I use for my Christmas dress of the year but we will see how we go closer to date.

Shoot details: There was no way I wasn’t going to take this dress to the Snugglepot and Cuddlepie statues located at Perth Cities Stirling Gardens. This has always been one of my favourite statues throughout Australia and I’m so happy to be able to go see it whenever I want.
Earrings: thrift store finds
Brooch: Erstwilder
Shoes: Honiara Vintage (full review here)

Note: This is not a sponsored post. All opinions and thoughts expressed are solely my own and not influenced in any way. There are no affiliate links and I do not benefit from any link clicks or purchases made.