Mila Dress

Mila is the newest pattern to be released by Sansahash, just a couple days ago and it’s on sale for $5.50 through Tuesday, April 24th.

Pattern Description: 
Drop-waisted dress with options of gathered or pleated skirt, made with knit fabrics (50% strech recommended). The top also has an optional V back that can be made with wovens as well.

Pattern Sizes:
Sizes are from 6 months old to 12 years. Two of mine were made with 12m chest, 18m hips, and height of 2. I made a third one for my friend’s daughter using 6m chest and 12m hips and height.

My thoughts on the pattern:
I am so happy that I was able to test this one for Mgeni, because I’m in love with the dress, particularly the pleated version. Reminds me of a tennis skirt.

Construction is super simple because of the facings. I literally constructed one of the bodices in 20 minutes. The pleats take a bit longer – took me about 1.5 hours to pin, iron, attach, and hem; but well worth it. One of the dresses has gone through the wash twice already (Lillian also loves her new dresses :)) and the pleats have held up nicely.

The first one I made was the vintage length, a bit too short for me. But Mgeni added some length to the skirt piece for the final so now it’s perfect. If you still want the vintage length, you just need to cut 1″ off the length of the skirt.

Pattern Modifications:
Lillian wants pockets in everything I make her. I don’t blame her, so I added pockets to both dresses for her. Other than that, I only blended the correct sizes for my girl.

I added them just around the hip line so that I could catch the bottom of the pocket while attaching the skirt, that way it stays in place.

Fabric Used:
White with blue and pink flowers: a remnant knit from Joann’s. 40% stretch – meant that I had a harder time getting it over Lillian’s head. I had to cut away the neckline a bit.

Teal: a knit from my stash. It also has less than 50% stretch so I modified the neckline ahead of time

Blue stripes: Lillian picked this one out at Joann’s. 50% stretch, so neckline was good. I want to say it is a bit heavy so the skirt is pulling the bodice a bit, but not too much to where it is bothering me.

Would I sew it again? Would I recommend it to others?
Oh yes! I’m planning on making more – maybe hacking it with the Nilah dress to add sleeves for when it isn’t summer.

PS – Lillian saw me using a remote for the Mermaid skirt from the last post, so I bribed/tricked her saying that she can take the photos herself. At this age, they want to do eeeeeverything themselves. Whatever works right? That’s why you see a camera remote in her hand for most of these photos.