Guest Blog Post: Baby Hobbes Design and the NEW Sally Dress

Merav and her lovely daughter Hobbes from Baby Hobbes Design are back and they are reviewing our newest Sis Boom dress, the Sally. Sally is available for the special introductory price of $7.50 till Sunday, 1/17/16 at midnight EST.

Make room for the SisBoom Sally…a beginner venture to creating a beautiful dress.

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I must say that as much as I like challenging myself with new sewing complexity; I am always in the market for an easy beginner sewing pattern without buttons or zippers to whip up with a moment’s notice. Like when Hobbes comes home from school and tells me “Mom, my friend Olivia asked for a My Little Pony dress, can that be her birthday present?…and the party is tomorrow!!!!” Or when I have a new sewing student who is eager to sew her first dress–but is uncomfortable with embellishments like buttons and zippers. The Sally is going to be my new go-to pattern; and I can’t wait to introduce her to you!

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The Sis Boom Sally sports a simple, yet modest tank bodice with two neck option that your child can pull on and off herself without any closures. The bodice is relaxed and the (optional) side sash and elastic sewn directly to the seams (no casing) can assist for a more fitted look. You can create two skirt looks. I chose to create the dress with a top skirt, but you can keep it simple and conserve fabric by sewing the bottom skirt only.

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In true Sis Boom style, you’ll learn sewing techniques – Sis Boom Sally focuses on bias tape placement for an unlined bodice (woohoo, less fabric) and you can get creative making your own bias to match. Store-bought bias is welcomed too–and you can place the bias flushed over the head and arm opening or use it to line the inside edges only.

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Take a look at some of the different Sally’s made during testing. It’s a such a great layering dress too!

PicMonkey Collage

The best part of the newly released Sally is that you are getting ONE wonderfully written (congrats Jeanine Thomlinson for her first pattern with the Sis Boom and Sciencetific Seamstress team) Beginner pattern sized from 3-Months to 14 years. That’s babies, kids and tweens all in ONE loaded pattern. The actual pattern pieces can be printed in your child size-so for Hobbes dress, I printed 2 pages only for a size 3T high neck-bodice. The skirt measurements are found on page 6-and you can adjust the length based on the child height-in my case, a 4T.

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Oh, and did you catch how I like to conserve fabric? My beautiful Jennifer Paganelli fabrics, in Good Company Jessie in garnet and Nostalgia Tilly in gold are too dear to me to just stay hidden under my top skirt. What do you think of this little trick?

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It’s so simple to do this to your bottom skirt, let’s call it underskirt and conserve your designer fabrics. First, I added an extra 0.5 to the bottom skirt length to account for the seam allowance when sewing the two fabrics together. Next, for the fabric (yellow) portion, I looked at the difference between the top and bottom layer-I call it the “seen underskirt” and added 2 inches plus a 0.5 inch for the hem. Total all that and that’s the measurement for the yellow bottom portion of my bottom skirt. To get the top portion of my (white) underskirt, just subtract the previous total from your original underskirt measurement + 0.5 we originally added to the skirt length to account for seam allowance. Easy right?

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I am loving the simplicity of the SisBoom Sally and I can’t wait to make many more Sally’s for Hobbes to wear year-round. Join me next week for a modified look at the Sally-because you know how I like to stretch my pattern bucks!

Stay tuned for Part 2 next week – modifying Sally for a winter look. Till then, happy sewing!

~Merav @ Baby Hobbes Design

Stop by my Facebook page Baby Hobbes Design and say Hi; or drop me a line @babyhobbesdesign on Instagram.
Shout out to the wonderful Jeanine Thoslinson and all the wonderful Sally testers; it was a pleasure testing with you.

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