This week I sewed up the newly updated (aff) Well Rounded Dress by Duchess & Hare*. This pattern, which originally featured a rounded yoke, now has a straight yoke option too. Duchess & Hare is a wonderful pattern company specializing in vintage-modern girls’ clothing patterns. Their drafting gets high praise from industry professionals and Well Rounded is no exception.
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The Well Rounded Dress can be combined with the Every Which Way Dress*, giving you more sleeve, collar and neckline options!
The instructions for this pattern were straight forward and easy to follow, with photos for each step of the tutorial. Bodice seams are enclosed, and the back includes a placket, making for a nicely finished dress inside and out.
The dress (or tunic) can be made with various lightweight woven fabrics. For mine, I chose to use Stenzo cotton poplin from Mabel Madison. If you’re unfamiliar with cotton poplin, it’s very similar to quilting cotton however it’s wider (60″), and not prone to fading like quilting cottons, and is more resistant to crumpling. (Woohoo, less ironing!)
I initially didn’t plan to buy this fabric, however my 2 year old saw me on their website and went into absolute hysteria over the pink hedgies!! So, basically I didn’t have a choice, LOL. Since Miss 6 and Miss 2 LOVE to match each other, I thought it would be fun to use the green colorway for hers. I didn’t quite have enough yardage to make the dress version for her though, so I opted for the tunic instead. This, of course, was NOT well received by Miss 6.
Oh well.
Anyway, back to this pattern: sizing runs from 6 months – 12Y. I sewed up the 2 lengthened to 3 for my youngest and 5 lengthened to 7 for my eldest. This is a perfect fit for each of them.
The Duchess & Hare blog has information on modifying the bodice. I decided to add pleats and rickrack to mine.
The other modification that I did was the construction of the back yoke. Rather than assembling this section by attaching the yoke outer to the skirt, and then top stitching the lining into place, I was able to use the burrito method to attach the back yoke to the back skirt in one fell swoop. I couldn’t seem to get this method to work for the front though :(. (Here’s a tutorial for constructing a yoke using the burrito method – it’s much the same concept).
Unfortunately I messed up the bodice front on the green version – I somehow twisted it as I sewed it, so it’s not sitting right :(. Too much work to fix, so I’m ignoring it for now!
There are 3 sleeve options for this dress, in addition to sleeveless. I used the Angel sleeve for this one. The pattern recommends using very lightweight fabrics for the sleeve. I would say the poplin is about the same weight as quilting cotton, so it’s a bit heavier than the recommendation, but I think it still works.
The verdict though, is that my girls are GIDDY about their new outfits! They have been loving twirling around in them!
SALE ALERT! Get 20% off the updated Duchess & Hare Well Rounded Dress until Friday August 24, 2018.*
Pattern: Duchess & Hare Well Rounded Dress*
Stenzo Hedgie Garden, Green, Cotton Poplin – Mabel Madison
Stenzo Hedgie Garden, Pink, Cotton Poplin – Mabel Madison
Stenzo White Stars on Green, Cotton Poplin – Mabel Madison
Disclosure: I’m a Brand Ambassador for Mabel Madison and received this fabric complimentary for purposes of review and promotion.
Disclosure: I received this pattern complimentary in exchange for testing and promoting this pattern.
auschick sews 
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