This is a long overdue post.
Mid summer was very hot here in Brisbane and I was inspired to make my little girl some simple cotton dresses. I got some cheap cotton from spotlight.
I trawled through sewingpatterns.com for what seemed like hours and settled on NEWLOOK 6504
So then I googled the pattern the see if I could find an aussie supplier. You can see where this is heading …. I couldn’t find it anywhere.
Sewingpatterns.com offered the pattern as a download for $2.99 US, so I thought for 6 bucks (with a crappy exchange rate) it was worth a go. ……
It was a fairly simple ordering process. You pay for the pattern and they email you a password. From there you install a simple security plug-in for Adobe reader. Then you can download the instructions and the pattern sheets. The security of the system is that you can only use the same printer to print the patterns, now and in the future.
.
So what you do is print out the pattern sheets on your normal printer using normal typing paper. You tape them together and then cut out the pieces. VOILA there is your pattern. Well that process took fucking hours!!!! This pattern for a simple child size A-line dress was 84 pages. I kid you not. I would hate to think how many pages a more complicated adult pattern would be.
Putting the pages together was easy but kind of tedious. In the end I only joined the pieces that I thought I might use in the future. Which was silly because since then I have made almost every view of the dress. I also used a paper cutter to trim the sides of each page to make matching the edges up easier.
After I got the pages together I traced the size I needed on Grease proof/baking paper.
So a lot of work for a simple pattern. But a pattern that I only paid $6 for that I couldn’t get from my local spotlight.
I MIGHT do it again but only as a last resort and only if I couldn’t buy the pattern locally (within Australia).
So the final product …. perfect.
I have made 4 of these dresses and I can make the simplest one with just under 1m of fabric in just under 2 hours. So for 1 lunch time nap and $4 thats great.
Fantastic dresses, and they all look so different. Can’t wait to see the next post on clothes for little boys! What a stylish model.
Very cute and very helpful on the downloads! Thanks for the info!
You need to get an American friend grab some of the patterns when they’re $1-2 American on sale and send them to you. It HAS to be easier.
It looks like it was worth the effort this time. I do consider myself warned for future reference!
The dresses are really cute, and it’s a great pattern review.
Easy for me to say, but it looks like it was worth it! Lovely, lovely dresses! And gorgeous model too.
So can I expect some beautiful size 4 dresses one day? Pretty please!!!
what a pain! i have that exact same pattern i bought from my spotlight, which i made for my nieces! annoying they didn’t have it in your spotlight!