What about some easy sewing for girls – small and big? Albertine is a dress pattern by Citronille which I started sewing for my girls and myself a few years ago in its original version with sleeves; but which I quickly hacked into a sleeveless version, perfect as a summer dress or as a nightie. And as ever, I have sewn… well, quite a few of them…

The pattern is very simple, with only a few pieces: 2 sleeves, 2 skirts and 2 pieces and their linings for the top. The main difficulty lies in assembling the sleeves to the body, as they are gathered with elastics – nothing hugely complicated but you need to be a bit meticulous.

Adding to this the fact that the collar is far too low for winter, it quickly occured to me that the sleeves wheren’t a necessity! I replaced them with straps and … abracadabra, it became the ultimate summer dress!

Here are a few pictures of our collection for this summer – I find this is such a perfect dress for early teenager girls that I slightly went crazy in my production… If you’re careful you’ll even see an Albertine shirt within these pictures.

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When I like a sewing pattern, I just can’t get enough of it! And I sew it again and again and again…

This summer, I fell in love with shirred dresses. All the more so that this is such an easy one to self-draft that you don’t even need a pattern! So here are the pictures of my creations over the past two months.

The blue gigham dress, which would definitely need an elastic at the top but I just did not plan for it… Oups! 

The white broderie anglaise dress, fully lined therefore not as light as expected…

The asymetrical ruffle dress – ruffles are another of my sewing addictions this summer; first one in white swiss dots…

… and second one in red cotton voile, ever so light

My “Falbala dresses” (have you read Asterix?) – Mister Mignon makes jokes but I absolutely love them!

And my princess dresses, in silky satin which is a dream to wear…

IF YOU WANT TO MAKE YOUR OWN SHIRRED DRESS, YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN THESE TUTORIALS:

Balthazar by Citronille is definitely the pattern I have sewn most in my (reasonably short) seamstress’s life. At a pace of 5 shirts every summer for each of my little boys, plus a few presents here and there, I must have sewn between 20 and 30…

With such a promising name (those who know me will understand), Balthazar and I were meant for each other! I always sew the same model:

• in a very light shirting cotton  – discounted designer fabric is best  – either from Croftmill or Fabrics Galore. I strongly advise you avoid cotton voile though, far too delicate;

• with 3/4 sleeves, to protect my boys from the sun without keeping them too warm;
• one size ahead (size 10 for my 8 year-old, 8 ans, size 8 for my 6 year-old);
• and importantly I refuse to buy tee-shirts, this way they have no choice… bad mum…

I add attractive buttons to please my clients, a mummy-made label to convince them that I was definitely the one spending all this time for them, and also their name sticker inside so that the shirts end-up in the right cupboard… and on the right child…

And I never get bored of them wearing the shirts!