School Dress For Alannah

When we moved to Switzerland Alannah was bitterly disappointed to discover that they don't wear school uniforms here.  As an almost 5 year old about to start school in Australia, getting her first uniform and feeling like a big school kid was a really exciting thing.  But we left just before this happened.  So I promised I would make her a school uniform like dress.  After a bit of searching I  had my heart set on a the Oliver + S, Jump Rope Dress but at the time it was out of print and I could not find a copy.

Last year the Jump Rope Dress pattern was digitally released and I bought my first ever digital pattern.  Which I like for the convenience of getting the pattern so quickly but I still prefer a printed pattern, probably because our printer is not the greatest, plus with such a detailed dress it took quite some time to put all the pages together. 

I chose Anna Maria Horner's, Buoyancy in Deep for the fabric.  Love this fabric, it has the right school dress colouring but is so much prettier. 

Finally 3 weeks ago (after spending months procrastinating over weather to sew a white collar or use the dress fabric) with the school year end rapidly approaching, I started sewing.  As with all the Oliver + S patterns I have sewn to date I found this dress came together perfectly.  It has lots of details like a placket, collar, sleeves with cuffs, pockets and a belt with belt loops, so it took some time to construct, but it was well worth the effort.

I sewed up size 7 and made no alterations to the fit.  The dress fits Alannah (who is a smallish to average size 7 year old) great with room to grow so hopefully will fit after the summer holidays as well, especially as we only have one and a half weeks of school left till Summer Holidays.

Alannah loves her "school uniform" dress and so do I.  I think it has the feel of a school uniform but is so much lovelier.