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building block dresses sewn by frances suzanne
We’re absolutely thrilled to welcome back Ashley and Emily from Frances Suzanne to our little corner of the internet! Over the years, they’ve shared so many wonderful sewing projects with us—like their favorites from the Puppet Show and Music Class collections, a deep dive into the art of tucks, and even their adventures in creating outfits for a magical Disney trip. This time around, they’re here to talk about something extra special—the Building Block Dresses they’ve crafted for their adorable nieces. Let’s hear what they have to say!
Hi everyone! It’s such a joy to be back again, sharing some of our latest creations with the amazing Oliver + S community. For us, summer sewing is always filled with big ideas and plenty of free time to bring those dreams to life. One pattern that inevitably makes its way into our plans? The Building Block Dress. As devoted sewists, we’ve developed a bit of a reputation for being picky when it comes to patterns. While we love tons of them, there’s usually something small we’d tweak if we were making the same design ourselves.
Lucky for us, Liesl’s *Building Block Dress: A Sewing Pattern Alteration Guide* provides an incredible roadmap for turning our visions into reality. Not only does it make the process easier and faster, but following her guidance significantly boosts the chances of success compared to winging it ourselves. Thanks to Liesl’s book, we’ve now created six distinct versions of the Building Block Dress—all showcasing different design elements or fabrics—but without anyone guessing they all started from the same pattern.
Our eldest niece, EA, has already received three beautiful Building Block Dresses:
1. **Casual Empire Waist**: Think of this as the ultimate summer staple—a relaxed yet chic dress featuring a Peter Pan collar and slightly notched short sleeves.
2. **Princess-Seamed Navy Dress**: A classic navy blue number with capped sleeves, a charming tie collar, a pleated circle skirt, and functional pockets to boot!
3. **Heirloom Easter Dress**: Pure elegance in lace, lace, and more lace! To complement the main dress, we also made a matching slip using the Building Block Dress template.
Then there’s CL, the middle child among the nieces, who has also enjoyed three stylish Building Block Dresses:
1. **Striped Sleeveless Dress**: A playful yet sophisticated option featuring a pleated circle skirt and made from eye-catching upholstery fabric.
2. **Princess-Seamed Floral Dress**: Another standout piece with capped sleeves, a uniquely shaped collar, a pleated circle skirt, and delightful pockets. Interestingly, this dress uses nearly all the same pattern pieces as EA’s navy dress—except for the collar. After scouring social media platforms like Instagram and Flickr, we couldn’t find another example of someone else sewing this exact collar variation, which appears in “Dress Variation F†on page 111 of the book. So naturally, we took matters into our own hands and gave it a try ourselves. Spoiler alert: there may very well be others out there who’ve attempted this look, but our search didn’t uncover any!
3. **Sleeveless Knit Nightgown**: Taking inspiration from EA’s heirloom slip, we transformed the original pattern into a cozy knit nightgown for CL. Talk about versatility!
Shelley’s tutorial on adapting the Building Block Dress for knits proved invaluable during this project.
And finally, let’s not forget LG, the youngest of the nieces. Though she hasn’t yet received a Building Block Dress, rest assured her moment is fast approaching! With multiple pattern pieces already drafted in sizes 4 and 5, we’re itching to get started once she grows into those measurements. The groundwork is done; all that’s left is the fun part—putting needle to fabric and watching creativity unfold!
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This journey through the Building Block Dresses has taught us just how empowering it is to understand alterations. Armed with this knowledge, we feel confident taking any pattern and tweaking it to suit our unique tastes. Plus, once you draft certain components in a specific size range, they become reusable across multiple projects! Just look at how we applied this principle to EA and CL’s dresses. Same basic structure, same size—just swapped out collars and fabrics to keep things fresh and exciting.
Even the transition from EA’s heirloom slip to CL’s knit nightgown demonstrates the endless possibilities within a single pattern. From formal heirlooms to casual loungewear, the Building Block Dress proves itself adaptable enough to handle it all. And hey, who knows? Maybe LG will inspire us to dream up something entirely new. Until then, stay tuned because the sewing magic continues!
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*P.S. If you're curious about diving deeper into the Building Block Dress book, check out [this post](https://example.com/building-block-dress-guide) for a thorough review.*