Welcome to our Apple-Picking Dress Sew Along! This new Oliver + S girls’ dress pattern is amazingly cute and I’m super excited to sew it with all of you. If you haven’t picked up the pattern or fabric yet and would like to join us, you still have plenty of time to order it and get started, especially because each step shouldn’t take you too long, and we won’t have another session until Monday.

Supplies: fabric, pattern, lightweight fusible interfacing, tailors chalk, tracing/freezer paper, felt tipped pen, pattern weights

This pattern is for intermediate beginners, and therefore is a great way to introduce some important sewing techniques that you will use again and again. Rather than showing you each step of the pattern (you need to buy the pattern for that!), I’m going to focus on some of the more intimidating steps that might frustrate beginners, such as creating gathers, sewing buttonholes, and attaching sleeves.

For the first day of our sew along, I thought I’d focus on preparing and cutting out the pattern. As with almost all other garment sewing patterns, you will want to wash and dry your fabric before using it. Unlike quilt sewing, it’s important to prewash your fabric to avoid any shrinking of your perfectly fitted garment. After you pull your warm and soft fabric from the dryer be sure to press it with a steamy iron.

When cutting out pattern pieces, it’s best to have a roll of tracing or freezer paper handy so you don’t ruin your original pattern. Trace all of the pattern pieces in your chosen size onto the tracing paper, being sure to add all notches and guide marks.

Cut out your pattern pieces and lay them out on your pressed fabric following the layout guide included in the pattern. This pattern utilizes two different layout guides that require you to fold the fabric differently. Around half of the fabric should be folded in half with the wrong side out, and around half of the fabric should be folded as so below:

After you’ve placed your traced pattern pieces on your fabric and held them down with pattern weights, use tailors chalk or a washable fabric pen to trace around the pieces, being careful to also transfer the notches and other guide marks.

Now you can finally cut out your pattern pieces! Yay! I know this process feels a little involved, but you’ll be happy you did it if you ever want to make the pattern again in a different size.

This pattern also requires lightweight fusible interfacing for the placket. Follow a similar procedure when cutting out the interfacing, tracing your cut out pattern pieces onto the interfacing before cutting.

Now you’re ready to start sewing!

Monday (9/19) we’ll cover making the skirt, and I’ll focus on how to make the gathers for the ruffles. Good luck and remember to have fun! Let me know if you have any questions in the comments.