When I saw this starred fabric at The Fabric Fairy I had to add it to my order. It's not the best knit fabric - hardly any stretch/recovery - but the star pattern is great and I knew it would be perfect for Bean's Fourth of July dress.
The striped fabric is from Kitschycoo and is, of course really lovely. I only bought a small amount of it since I had planned to use it for this dress and maybe some bindings for a shirt for me, but now I wish I had bought more of it.
As I've mentioned before, I've declared this the #summerofshandiin on Instagram, so it's no shock that I used it for a Fourth of July dress. The pattern technically says not to use knit for any parts except for the main front and back, but since the star fabric doesn't really stretch much and is a little stiff I threw caution to the wind and used it for the straps. I cut them in the direction of least stretch and not on the bias which makes a difference. They are holding up well so far.
For this celebratory dress I took the size 3T Shandiin pattern and lengthened it by 2.5 inches at the waist on both the back and front tunic pattern pieces. I then retraced the line from the armpit down to the 3T hemline to be straight on both pieces. The length is perfect for cute little summer dress.
For the upper back piece I used more knit (a no no according to the pattern), but I used a knit interfacing stabilizer to really hold it together. Since it's a knit interfacing it will still stretch if tugged, but it's doing a great job of keeping that cool cutout shape from sagging.
I hope you are enjoying your summer. Ours has already been packed with lots of exhausting fun which is how summertime is meant to be, right?
