Jasmine by My Childhood Treasures

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Hi!  I'm Shae with Saflower Photography and Saflower Designs.  I'm back with a review of the Jasmine Dress by My Childhood Treasures.  

This is one of those dresses/shirts that you really need to see it modeled to appreciate it's shape!  I made this in a size 4 without any alterations.  My daughter wears a size 4 in ready-to-wear and this was a perfect fit. I would call this an intermediate or confident beginner pattern just because there are buttons and button holes, as well as a little bit of gathering.

Let's start with the bodice.  The shape is really great!  If you remember from past reviews, I hate doing set in sleeves, but this dress/top has the sleeves built right into the bodice shape.  That's right, no additional sleeve pieces to cut out and sew on!!  For those of us that have school age kids with dress codes, this should work well.  

It is a lined bodice and it's constructed just like most of the other lined bodices I have sewn.  If you have done these before, it will go very quickly.  The front has a nice curve, while the back comes down a little lower and is strait across.  It closes using buttons and button holes.

Moving on to the skirt.  I chose to make both the dress version and the shirt version.  The bodice is the same for both options and the skirt pieces are just shorter for the shirt version.  Now, this is not going to be super full skirt.  It is pretty narrow and has minimal gathering.  You actually only gather between the curve and a little right in the center of the back.  The one spot I had a problem with was when it came down to actually attaching the skirt to the curve of the bodice.  While the skirt pieces are curved, you have to do it like a set in sleeve and ease it in there.  I kind of rushed it, but it is pretty forgiving so it worked out fine.  

I'm going to let you all in on a little secret of mine.  I HATE hemming stuff.  You will notice on most of my stuff, I almost always add some sort of trim on the bottom.  I serge it on, right sides together, and then top stitch it so I don't have to do the hemming part.  On the dress I added a little pink ball fringe to it and since I wasn't doing the hem, I took an inch off the length.  For the shirt I added the eyelet lace.  I didn't remove any of the length on the shirt, because I like it to fit a little longer.  

The actual pattern includes 

  • options for the dress and shirt length, as well as options for pleats or gathers and then a version that has a pretty organza or net overlay.
  • A size chart and a finished garment measurement chart
  • fabric requirements
  • fabric recommendations
  • pattern assembling directions
  • sort of a printing guide
  • detailed photos for each step, using fabrics and colors that are easy to read
  • nested, color pattern pieces that range in size from 2-10. 
  • a glossary of terms

Pros

  • very fast
  • nothing tricky
  • uh, did you see how cute it is?
  • well written pattern
  • lots of options
  • no set in sleeves :)
  • great fit!
  • unique design and look

Cons

  • the size range is 2-10.  This is fine for me, but I know there are others who might like it to go up to 12 and down to a 12month.
  • there is not a ton of room to move around in the dress length skirt because it is narrow, although my daughter was able to hike out to this location just fine in the dress.
  • the print chart gives you the pages number to print depending if you want to use the netting or not, but not the sizes.  I ended up printing a lot of pages I didn't need because I made this in a size 4
  • There are 20 pages to print for the pattern and an additional 18 pages if you are doing the overlay, so it uses a lot of paper and tape!  

verall, I think it is a wonderful pattern and very easy to customize and add on your own details to make it special.  I already have a few more planned for my daughter's school wardrobe next year.  Happy Sewing!!