Duchess & Hare Everything Nice Dress Release

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Just in time for Christmas, Duchess and Hare have released two new holiday dress patterns! I sewed up the new Duchess & Hare Everything Nice Dress for both my girls, and they do look so adorable in them! (Pattern on sale until Monday Dec 2!)

The dress has 3 neckline options (2 collar options or no collar), 3 sleeves (flutter, long, short), and can be easily lengthened or shortened. It also features pleats that run down the front of the dress to the hem, and an invisible zipper at the back. Size wise, this pattern runs from 2T- 10Y. The dress is designed to finish above the knee.

I made the smaller version first as my test. I realized afterwards that it was a bit on the short side, and that’s when I noticed I’d miscalculated how much I needed to add in length (I started with a size 2 and intended to lengthen to 4, but ended up more like a size 3 in length). For my eldest daughter, I blended size 6 chest with 8 height, plus I added an extra inch length on top of that, as I find the D&H intended length tends to be a bit shorter than I would like on my girls.

For my fabric, I used some lovely flannel from Berger’s Sewing in Manassas, VA. This store is local to me and worth checking out if you’re in the area. The store owner helped me find the red fabric for the collar, which is actually a Donna Karen stretch twill that I interfaced with woven interfacing.

Some areas where I detoured from the instructions:

• Interfaced the under-collar
• Interfaced the zipper insertion area
• Cut the under-collar slightly smaller than the collar piece (about 1/8″ around) and stretched the smaller piece to fit the larger. This is called “favoring” and causes the collar to wrap around the under collar so you don’t see the under collar when worn.
• To lengthen the dress, I printed the chest size only. I then looked at the finished measurement chart and deducted the size 6 from the size 8 and used the difference as my additional length. I cut a horizontal line through the front and back of the pattern and taped the extra length in.
• To stitch down the pleats, I reduced the stitch length to 0.5 as I got close to each end point. I then didn’t backstitch. I use this same method when sewing darts. It doesn’t come undone… which is a problem if you make a mistake ;-).

So I misread the instructions on this one and stitched the pleats down at the hem. Once I realized, I unpicked them but ugh, that was a pain on flannel!!

SALE ALERT! All Duchess & Hare patterns are 40% off until Monday December 2, 2019! This one is only $4.50!

Disclaimer: I tested this pattern for Duchess and Hare.