By Kid’s Craft Contributor, Gillian from the blog “Dried Figs and Wooden Spools”.

I’m kind of an opinionated sewer. And I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad one. I have my ideas on when you need to follow rules and when you don’t, what you must have and what you can frankly do without, and I have serious opinions on patterns. Mainly that most of them are terrible these days.

I’m not sure who the pattern companies think they are making patterns for, but many of the ones I’ve run across in recent years are so garbled they would confuse even advanced sewers. I bought one for a simple elastic neck dress for my daughter last fall that seemed to have been written in some language other than english and then badly translated three or four times before it got to me. Awful.

So when I do find a good source for patterns that are well made, and that make great garments, I’m pretty jazzed. For grown up girl patterns you can’t beat Wendy from Built by Wendy. But for little bugs I think some of the best patterns available come from Oliver + S, like this Ice Cream Dress.

First off, they are unbelievably cute. As in, I would dress my child in nothing else if I had time to make them all cute. Secondly, they are obviously made with kids in mind. No tight closures or seams in weird spots that are likely to itch. They are most definitely designed to be comfortable and long lasting.

Now, obviously they don’t sew themselves, and they aren’t necessarily beginner patterns. But they are well written and well illustrated so if you are a reasonably competent sewer and you read the directions carefully, you’ll turn out a beautiful outfit for your kiddo. At our house we’re part way through making a second Ice Cream Dress (the first get A LOT of wear) as well as a Birthday Party Dress which I’m finding equally satisfying to sew. One note I’ll make is to be sure to pre-wash your fabric. I know, I know, I hate to prewash too, but your kids will love these clothes, and it would really be a shame to have them shrink up all funky on that first wash. So Pre-wash, and then sew away!