Handmaiden’s Cottage Easter Dress Sewing Pattern Blog Tour!

Welcome to The Handmaiden’s Cottage Easter Dress Sewing Pattern Blog Tour hosted by Seams Sew Lo (that’s me)! I am extremely giddy over this blog tour.  If you are like me and love little girls (and women’s too) style dresses and sewing patterns, you have come to the right place.  The Handmaiden’s Cottage dress sewing patterns are gorgeous!!  They sewing patterns are on sale too during the blog tour only!!  Use coupon code: EasterTour2018 to save 30% off their website or their Etsy Shop!!  Sale begins today March 1st and ends March 12th at midnight EST.

That is not all!  The Handmaiden’s Cottage is also doing a giveaway! Check it out below!  One lucky person will win a $50 store credit to the Handmaiden’s Cottage website!!  Wow!!  I wish I could win!! Enter below in the Rafflecopter giveaway and follow along each day of the blog tour to earn an additional entry each day!!

So, do you want the dress I made for the blog tour??  EEK!  I am so excited!

Be still my heart!  I love how this little vintage dress turned out!  I made the Petticoat Dress sewing pattern.  You can find it here or it also comes with the matching doll version here.  The Petticoat dress can be worn as a stand alone dress or it can be worn as an actual petticoat.  You can also buy the Tea Party dress and the Petticoat dress in a bundle here, as they work perfectly together.

For fabric, I used a pink sparkling cotton for the top and a fabulous pink pintuck cotton fabric for the bottom, both from Joann fabric.  I actually pulled out my ruffler foot to use it for the first time ever for the skirt.  I used the the pink glitter as my testing fabric to get the right length.  The Petticoat dress sewing pattern recommends setting the the ruffler at about 60%.  The settings that worked with the plain cotton was at 6 on the ruffler and my straight stitch set a 4 length.  Unfortunately the ruffler foot did not like the pintuck fabric, so I ended up hand gathering.  Which, I actually do not mind.

I actually listen to Audiobooks when I put patterns together, cut fabric, gather fabric, seam rip, etc.  I rarely have time to actually sit down and read a book, so I went from reading 1 book in three years to reading (okay listening to) 11 books last year and I am almost done with my third book this year.  My current book is “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up.”  My resolution this year is to get the house more organized.  I am a crafty person and can use all the help I can get.  LOL!  Anyways, back to the dress!

The highly recommended fabric for the petticoat dress is swiss bastise, however I when I came across this beautiful pintuck fabric, I knew I had to use it.  It worked really well.  Initially, I was worried it I would have issues gathering the fabric withe the pintucks, however it gathered easily.  The sewing pattern gives you the option of choosing shirring the bodice or using elastic. I chose shirring.

Since my fabric is bit thicker than a Swiss Batise, the shirring did not make it as tight as I had hoped.  If you are using a thicker fabric, I would recommend the elastic encasing instead.  Unless, of course, your machine is amazing at shirring! The Petticoat sewing pattern, also includes a tutorial for sash.  I decided to go with this lovely lace trim I won in a contest last year.

Overally, I HIGHLY recommend the Petticoat dress!  Go buy it now here while it is on sale!

Please visit all of the Easter Sewing Pattern Inspirations on the Handmaiden’s Cottage Easter Dress Blog Tour hosted by Seams Sew Lo!

1. 1. March 1st: Seams Sew Lo
   2. March 2nd: Miinoma Studio
   3. March 3rd: Momma You Can Make It
   4. March 4th: Kate Will Knit
   5. March 5th:  Kathy’s Kwilts and More
   6. March 6th: Granma Texas Sews
   7. March 7th: Our Play Place
   8. March 8th: Aurora Designs
   9. March 9th: Frullemieke
   10. March 10th: My Sewing Roots
   11. March 11th: Manning the Machine
   12. March 12th: Seams Sew Lo (Round Up)

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