KC Dress by Kidzmoments

A few months ago an Australian grandmother named Catherine posted a photo on Facebook of a dress she had made for her granddaughter, KC. She was met with many requests from other seamstresses to make her design into a pattern. Although she had no experience pattern writing, she decided to give it a go since so many people had begged her to make the pattern. She had the assistance of a test group that included a handful of experienced and helpful seamstresses and veteran pattern maker Terra Jennings of Terra's Treasures, who took Catherine under her wing and provided assistance.  The KC Dress pattern is a great first effort by a woman who never imagined she would be writing a PDF pattern one day for sale, and although the pattern is not as perfectly polished as some by long term veterans of the business, the design and instructions are solid.

If you'd like to enter to win a copy of this pattern:

1. Like this Facebook post and leave a comment. 

2. Like Catherine's Facebook Page for KidZmoments

And now, for the review... 

• This review was completed by a 3rd party objective reviewer who received a complimentary copy of the pattern in order to complete the review. Neither Pattern Revolution nor the reviewer received any additional compensation for this review.

Hello everyone.  My name is Sarah and I am back today with a review of the new Kidzmoments KC dress.  The KC dress is the first dress for a new pattern designer, Catherine Douglas. I was privileged to be involved with the testing of this dress, and I am so happy to be here discussing the pattern with you today!

 This sweet little dress is a classic bib-style dress with a gathered skirt, and some fun added in!  There are several options to give this pattern versatility and allow for creativity.  Options include: gathered or ungathered flutter details on the straps, single or double flutters, two bodice styles for the front, two lengths for the skirt and an optional sash for a pop of color.  

The dress features shirred side panels and a button closure on the back with a lined bodice.  One bodice option is a squared neckline, the other is a notched neckline.  The pattern instructions feature the square neckline and do not give any additional instruction for using the bonus sweetheart bodice pieces, although it is pretty straightforward.

 

The pattern itself consists of a combination of pattern pieces and rectangular pieces given by cutting dimensions. The flutter sleeves have options for either a rolled or a narrow hem.  

The pattern is written well with clear instructions and pictures given for each step.  And that's a good thing because although none of the techniques presented in this dress are advanced, it does cover almost every basic technique.  We are talking gathering, shirring, button holes, lining, loop turning, rolled hems, interfacing, clipping and notching curves and corners, etc.  The thought crossed my mind that this would be a perfect dress for a beginner sewing class; you could learn all the techniques while making one garment!  Because of the breadth of techniques, I consider this a strong beginner to intermediate pattern.

I chose to make one of my dresses a bit longer, I figured with the shirred side panels and a longer length, my daughter could get a lot of wear out of it!  Plus I like a longer skirt for the Fall/Winter, and it is right around the corner (yikes!)  This dress is perfect for layering too; the stretch from the shirring helps to maintain the fit even with a shirt underneath.  Pair it with some leggings and some slouchy boots, and bring on Fall!

The one downside of this pattern would be its size range; it includes sizes 1-5.  When my size 7 older daughter saw it, she asked me to make her one too.  So looks like I will be improvising a larger one!  

Overall, I give this pattern two thumbs up.  It is cute, versatile and is an everyday wearable item (which is important to me!) And the kiddo seems to like it too!

-Sarah