cottington's so crafty: Gathers and Circles: A Two-for-One Deal in the Little Lizard King Sorrento Dress

A new favorite pattern!!! Pretty stinkin' simple, and both Camden and I like it.

The Sorrento Dress by Little Lizard King offers both a circle skirt and gathered skirt option, and I sewed up one of each - though in fabrics opposite to what I intended, aha.

I had originally purchased the lovely purple bird fabric from Joann Fabrics (you have heard me say it a million times - I just do not generally like the fabric quality they carry, but this quilting cotton felt like a great quilting cotton, and while I wouldn't always recommend quilting cotton for this type of dress, it works well and is a dress for a kid, so, not a big deal to me) and had planned to whip up the circle skirt version. THEN, while at Modern Domestic one day, I saw the gorgeous black flowered print on a tube and had to have it. It wasn't expensive, and it was wide fabric, so, I didn't need much.

After both fabrics were washed, dried and ironed, I realized that the bird fabric wasn't wide enough for a circle skirt, and I was then tragically worried I didn't buy enough black fabric to make a circle skirt in lieu of that.... This story ends well, though - yay! I had enough black fabric, and I just turned that into the circle skirt version - and the birds into the gathered skirt. (The best part, though, is that Joann Fabrics carries two versions of the birds, and I had actually purchased both and meant to use the other purple shade, LOL! So, I will use that for next year's version, maybe!)

The dress is crazy easy to put together for such a cute little number. I will say, though, that I MUCH PREFER circle skirts over gathered skirts, especially when the gathers are made on a quilting cotton. It just creates too much bulk. As for the circle version, I did lengthen it to what would be a size 9, and the circle skirt I also lengthened, though apparently not as long, and it's a full 1.25 inches shorter, I think. I'm a bit bummed about that, as it's obviously short and would be better if it was longer. Either way, both are crazy cute, and I just love them THIS much.

The only outright change I made was in under-stitching around the top of the bodice, rather than either doing nothing or edge-stitching. I prefer a clean finish but also wanted that lining to stay in place. And not a huge deal, but to me, this is important: when straps are involved, I usually try to remember, after the whole thing is sewn, but is still inside-out, to stitch across the straps again in the seam allowance, for extra strength (as the original basting stitch is sometimes cut off).

On another note, I didn't go by measurements for the pattern. With other patterns, I usually look at measurements and sew either her size or a size up. I sewed a size 8 in this case, and it is SO gappy in the bodice. For the second version, the purple dress, I sewed a size 7, and it looks much nicer. No big deal, I figure, as she'll easily wear it next summer, too, and we'll just use a camisole under it for now.

Anyway, great dress, and everyone is correct when they say you DO need to make this! Don't wait!

Some time in the life of....