{review} Clara Dress by Filles a Maman

I'm part of a very cool pattern design community, where if someone is stuggling with a design issue, pattern problem or promoting conuntrum we all band together to help out.  

I love how we all help each other out and support each other, even though we are all in the same business.

Mel from Filles a Maman wanted to get more exposure for her most gorgeous Clara dress and I offered to do a review and blog post for her.

The pattern comes in French, but do not let this put you off as it comes in English too and I must say that it is one of the most professionally put together patterns I have used, and I have used MANY!!!

One thing I love is that there is a list of everything that you need to have cut out before you start.

The point of difference with this pattern is the cute little yolk and raglan style sleeves.  You can hide the yolk by using all the same fabric but I wanted to show it off as it makes such a statement.  I adore the gentle gathering below the yolk which creates a easy to wear, breezy, flowing dress.  Which is the style of dress I just love seeing on wee ones.

This dress is a reasonally simple one to make, I can't tell you the exact amount of time it took me as I am always interrupted by my children as I'm sewing, but I got the majority of it finished in a nap time, so I would hazard a guess at it taking me about 1 1/2 hours all up (and that is from cutting to finished)

I chose to use lace for the top ruffle instead of a coordinating fabric and I also overlaid the same lace on the yolk.

I made the size 12 months for my petite 19 month old daughter Portia.  who weighs 8.2kgs

The Clara has a very sweet silouette, with a slight flare at the bottom.  When making it you would think it would be too wide but hidden under the arms are some sneeky pieces of elastic to hug it into the body.  They are the perfect length to make it not too loose and not too tight and do not cause restriction in playing.   

Portia loved running around the park this morning in the blustery gale that it was...and the only time the dress blew up to show her nappy was when she stuck her bum in the air as she was getting up after falling over!!

It was so windy, can you see her hair being blown around,  I was actually very lucky to get these great shots of her with the dress in the right place :-)

And its also perfect to sleep in, here she is, all tuckered out after our morning at the partk.

Now I know you all love this dress, so off you go and purchase it.