**Update: Giveaway closed**

I’ve shown you a few makes on my blog by  Sansahash, and I love her designs and attention to detail. After the last test of the Mila dress, she put out a call for a blog tour and I jumped at the chance. After all, I was going to be making some more of Sansahash creations for Lilli, come summer time.

There are 31 bloggers participating in this tour and each one is giving away a free pattern! That means 31 lucky winners! Not only that, all Sansahash patterns are 40% off during the tour! And for those of you who are Dutch speaking, be sure to check out the new release of the Imari shorts in Dutch, on sale for 5 Euros!

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Today I’m going to show you how to add sleeves and pockets easily to the Mila dress using the Sansahash Nila dress.

What you are going to need:

1. Mila bodice pattern pieces
2. Nila bodice & sleeve pattern pieces
3. Your favorite in-seam pocket pattern (you can hand draw it if you don’t have one)
4. Tracing paper – I use swedish tracing paper
5. Marking notions – pencil, ruler,  hem guide

Bodice Armsyce Modification

Lets start with the front bodice.

Once you have determined the size you need, place the Mila bodice on top of your tracing paper.

Now place your correctly sized Nila front bodice on top. Line up the fold line and inner shoulder point of both pieces.

You are going to trace the Nilah armsyce on to the extended tracing paper. You may notice a dip into the Mila bodice, near the armpit that you’ll need to cut or fold it away. See the pink line above.

Because the Nilah is a much more fitted bodice than the Mila, the Nila armsyce will end earlier, so make sure to keep the extended Mila armsyce. Make note of how much the Mila armscye extends out, for me it was 1/2″.

Repeat this with the back bodice pieces.

Facings – If you want to add a facing, you’ll have to make similar changes to the facing pieces. However, I just removed it and finished the neckline using bias binding. (See further down)

Sleeve Modification

We now want to extend the sleeve curve the same amount that we extended for the armsyce. Measure how much more the Mila bodice extends out. I used my hem guide to keep track of the measurement. Add this amount to the end of the curve on the sleeve pattern piece and grade the sleeve side to your regular size. My original sleeve is shown with the dashed line below.

Pocket Pieces

Most in seam pockets are cut and sewn on separately. But I recently saw that I can just integrate it into the bodice pieces. To do this, I laid my bodice pattern piece on top of my fabric, then laid the pocket pattern piece next to it (overlapping 1/4″). And you cut your fabric as if it was one piece!

Make sure the “drop” in the pocket is closer to the hem. I placed the pocket so that the bottom of the pocket was 3/4″ above the bottom of the bodice piece. When you go to sew the front and back pieces, you will align the pockets together and sew your side seam as usual.

If you are using a serger for construction, you want to go back with your sewing machine and sew into the pocket piece 1/2″ at the top and bottom to make it a smoother finish on the outside.

Another thing I do to all the Milas I have made, is to “catch” the bottom of the pocket into the seam between bodice and skirt so that it stays in the front.

As  you can see here, the sleeves are a pretty good fit.

Neckline Bias Binding

You most definitely can find a ton of tutorials to finish your neckline using bias binding. The steps are simple.

1. Measure the neckline (without stretching it)
2. Multiple measurement by 0.8 ( 80% of the original measurement)
3. Add 0.5 to Step 2 – to add seam allowance
4. Cut bias strip based on what number you got in step 3

My neckline was 14.5″ so I cut my bias strip 11.6″ + 0.5″ = 12.1″ long.

How wide you cut your strip depends on how you are finishing your neckline. I cut mine 2″ wide to be on the safe side.

How to attach the binding:

First sew the two ends together, using 1/4″ seam allowance. Then mark the loop into quarters. Mark the neckline into quarters too – 2 of the points will be the center front and center back. Then pin the binding to the neckline at the quarter points. When sewing, you will stretch each section of the binding to perfectly align with the neckline.

Binding was attached to the right side of the bodice and folded inwards. Using a chain stitch on my coverstitch machine allowed for a simple but stretchy line of stitching around the neck. I went back in and cut off the extra binding to finish it off instead of folding it in because the fabric is a bit thicker and I didn’t want the bulk.

Now you have a bias bound, sleeved Mila with pockets!

My daughter told me what kind of design she wanted on her dress, picked out the colors of the balloons and the fabric. I just did the free-hand embroidery 🙂

The skirt piece looks a bit different because I forgot to cut on the fold – and didn’t have enough fabric to re-cut. Hence, the less prominent gathers.

Giveaway

It’s time for a giveaway. As always, I’ve teamed up with a group of lovely bloggers to bring you a giveaway with such fabulous prizes. This giveaway is open world-wide. Be sure to follow everyone on the widget in order to be fully eligible to win

Giveaway rules:

1. Follow all of the bloggers today, listed in the Rafflecopter in the link below
2. Leave a comment (4+ words)

Rafflecopter Giveaway

You will then choose one winner (who completed 1 &2) after the blog tour to win the pattern of your choice and if they have bought it already they can choose another pattern.

But wait! The tour’s not over yet, and you don’t want to miss all the other talented seamstresses. Be sure to check out the other versions of Sansahash patterns made up, including other hacks like mine. Full round up: 

05 June
Yaaritg | Mamadammeke | Moineau & Petit Pois | Eenmodernsprookje

06 June
Moestashaandeslag | Scrapskeeper | Stannel | Blog Revolution

07 June
Molemieke | Sewcially Acceptable | Ongemerkt | Wilwarin Coutire

08 June
Lielebeesje | Frl.Love | Flaflinko | C’estsaar | Woohoo by Davina

09 June (Today)
Frullemieke | Gaaf Machine | Pimp Your Pattern | Pie Pow | Sew Bel | Jean Jeany

10 June
Dagbjort | Tricia | Ma Me Mi Mo

11 June
The Needle and the Belle | Soul Fed on Thread | Bel’Etoile | Chool n Duck | Hutsepruts

(Some links contained in this post may be affiliate links. I was not compensated for this post.)