The Sew and Tell Project

I had a hard time coming up with a good title for this post! Round-up might sound a little excessive, but I made and photographed 5 SLPco Skyler’s Top and Dress during testing and wanted to share each one! If you missed Alisha’s release post yesterday, she made two adorable baby versions for her one-year-old daughter. See them here!  You can buy the bundle for both BABY and GIRLS sizes right here.

When a big box of knits arrives at my house (not very frequently if my husband is reading this), two of my daughters immediately start claiming fabrics and asking for dresses.  To be honest, they have been a bit “mama-made” starved the past several months. I am nearly 30 weeks pregnant now and have taken a bit of a pregnancy and long winter-related hiatus from doing a lot of girls’ sewing, blogging, and shooting. The new Skyler dress pattern was perfect to get my “sewjo” back and also take advantage of utilizing some fabric cuts that I loved but had been sitting for several months. And if you haven’t seen the news on Instagram, I am having another girl, so I promise more girls’ sewing is coming! 

I love sewing with knits, particularly high-quality cotton lycra/spandex.  I made this version in one of my favorite Art Gallery Fabrics prints by Sharon Holland Designs.

I chose to do the large bow back view for this version and had just enough fabric for the circle skirt. This is a straight size 4.

One of the variations of Skyler’s top and dress includes small side bows. I made 3 sets of hairbows to coordinate with her favorite Skyler dresses as you can see in this picture. Just follow the tutorial to make the bows and hot glue to your favorite clip of choice. Due to the thickness of her hair, I used french barrettes so they would not slip out.

For my next Skyler, I combined one of my favorite fabrics, Art Gallery Yellow Stripes, with a large remnant I had leftover from sewing for the Printemps Fusions Lookbook earlier this spring. I just cut the fabric to length to the width of fold due to the limited yardage I had. Luckily, with knits you can get away with removing a few inches on gathered skirts. This pattern is also suitable for using woven fabric for the SKIRT ONLY but I prefer to make all-knit dresses for ease of washing and comfortable wear.

For this version, I chose the simple square back. The instructions were clear to make a fully-lined and unique bodice.

I also used my time during testing to get Little Miss’s 4th of July outfit created! Doesn’t she look like a little firecracker? I did another large center bow for her and used the circle skirt for maximum twirl! The fabric is a custom print I picked up last summer that is no longer available. I’m glad I saved it for the right pattern!

During testing this Little Miss also had a 4th birthday! I pulled every gorgeous floral and every whimsical print I had out of my stash to let her choose! She kept saying, “Nope. Not enough colors.” Until we arrived at this stripe which is still in stock here! Momfession: I tried one more time to get her to choose a tossed print so I could do the speedy circle skirt. But, seriously, even if you use all the options, my first Skyler took me less than 2 hours even with careful stripe matching and needing to follow the instructions step by step.

She wore this to her birthday party and got soooo many compliments!

Finally, I want to share my very favorite Skyler!

My nearly ten-year-old daughter helped me find these beautiful fabrics in my stash. I combined Art Gallery sleek mint stripes with another older AGF print from the Geometric Bliss collection. My daughter wanted a circle skirt and simple square back done on the modest cut line with short sleeves for summer events. The pattern also includes full-length sleeves so I know it will transition well for back to school. I sewed her a straight size 10 bodice and lengthened the skirt to a 12 due to her height.

The dress had the tween-friendly, retro look we were both going for. I usually avoid cutting a circle skirt on directional fabric, but since these were vertical stripes in short bursts, I thought it would be fun to play with the print’s orientation within the circle skirt. It kind of looks like a colorful disco ball to me!

Last but not least, I have a bonus Skyler to share! 3 of us 4 over at Sew and Tell Project participated in testing the Skyler. We all loved it! Here is Emily’s beautiful version in a size 7/8L on her little girl. I love the colorful use of chevrons to showcase the pattern.

I hope one or two of these beautiful dresses has inspired you to add the Skyler’s Square Back Top and Dress to your pattern stash and more importantly, get sewing! Tell us what you think below!