Hi friends! This is my first post at Amelia Lane Designs, I hope the first of many! I adore a modest back detail so when I heard the call for Little Dreamer hacks this immediately sprung to mind. Follow along and let me show you how easy this little hack is!
First, cutting! When I made my first Little Dreamer, I had my daughter try it on backwards to see how it felt. She said it was fine except for the neck was way too high (and she loathes that feeling) so the first thing I did was decide to do was to not simply swap the front and back sides. Rather I cut a v-neck front and a scoop neck front with the intention of making the v-neck the back.
Sorry the beautiful light disappeared. That's what happens when I'm done with my projector and it's not on anymore. Now you're ready to assemble your pieces! The construction is super similar to the instructions, so I won't rehash them all in detail. You want to start assembly and do the shoulders first.
Now, if you're like me, you'll put off doing the neckline and instead add your cuffs. Did I tell you we're adding cuffs? I am such a sucker for cuffs on a dolman. IDK why. *shrugs* Cutting cuffs without a pattern is very easy. I just measure the length of the open sleeve, figure out how wide I want the cuff to sit (usually around 1 inch) and then I cut a rectangle piece that is the length of the open sleeve and twice my final desired width.
EXAMPLE TIME: My open sleeve is 12 inches, my desired wide is 1 inch. I cut a rectangle that is 12 inches by 2 inches, so that when I fold over my cuff wrong sides together and attach it to my sleeve it will sew in at 12 inches by 1 inch. Usually my cuffs end up being a little longer than the sleeve, like it will end up being cut at 13 inches, you can just trim that off and it will be perfect!
^^These are my cut cuffs.
Next I attached the cuffs to the sleeve.
Now, if you're like me, this is the time when your serger will decide to act like a fool. It will get mad at your fabric (that has sewn fine until now), the thread will tangle, a needle will break, and you're realize it's dinner time. And you're hungry. Then you'll walk into the kitchen to find that you're totally out of tortillas, and you wanted one with your dinner. So then you'll stand around eating cheese until you decide what to cook for real, because you were really in the mood for your favorite dinner and now all other food sounds like garbage.
This escalated quickly.
Back to business.
So after you're done with the cheese (that was a joke, I'll never be done eating cheese) you'll just sew down the sides and you'll do the neckline. I cut the v-neck neckband an inch or two longer to accommodate for the scoop neck. In hindsight, I should have actually cut it an extra inch or two longer because the neckband ended up the tiniest bit tight around the front, then again that always happens to me when I use FT. Does that happen to ya'll? Do you always have to cut the neckband a little longer when you use FT or is it just me? Let me know in the comments.
^^Back view.
You're almost done! Now on the back, closer to the shoulders (mine ended up being about 1/2 an inch from the shoulder seam) you are going to want to attach your ribbon. This is the first one I made:
In retrospect I wish I had cut the ribbon longer (although I still think it's really cute). For the second one I made, I realized I didn't have any pink ribbon. So I grabbed some pink knit (seriously don't even know what kind it is) and just cut two long strips. They ended up being about 1.5 inches by 24 inches. The ribbon is adorable but I love the way the strips turned out too, and if it turns out you don't have any ribbon, it's an excellent substitute, plus it's softer.
I sewed these strips into the seam allowance so there wouldn't be any topstitching on the outside. I go over them about three times so they are super secure. Hem the bottom and that's it! You're done!
Thanks for reading about my hack, if you do it, please please please post a photo! I would love to see it! Tag us on Insta, @amelialanedesigns and @meeisele. My eleven year old isn't allowed to have Social Media, but I let her see comments in mine where people have responded to us and she LOVES IT SO MUCH!
Here she is in her three ALD Little Dreamers.
XO, Michelle
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