the may belle dress is a super cute little shirt dress from Iris May, one of the season 20 designers of Project Run & Play! There's also the option to make it into a shirt, and i was 100% going to make one up for little nova but i just ran out of time. There's several options for the dress, with sleeve length, cuffs and the option to have the skirts gathered or pleated.


if you're not familiar with sewing with european patterns, just remember this pattern has NO SEAM ALLOWANCES included, you have to add them on when you cut them out. It's mentioned several times in the instructions! Some of the instructions had me confused, but mostly because the steps were a different way than i would do things. I really liked the way the front placket was done - so neat.

I used a teal sheet in my stash for the dress, and some scraps left over from a cute little pinny i made for myself (and never blogged about it apparently) for the collar! The buttons were salvaged from a doona cover i was repurposing!


Eddie measured up to be a size 4, but I sewed up a size 6 since she has way too many clothes right now and I want her to have things she will wear a while. I wasn't sure she would be into it but she actually really loves this dress! The original length was long on her, which was such a cute look to me. she was giving me 50s housewife in her housecoat vibes with it, and then when we switched up her hairstyle I told her to put her ballet shoes on because she looked like a russian ballet teacher stereotype. After I took the photos, she asked if i would make the skirt shorter - so i did and as you can see her face became even BRIGHTER and she wore the dress the rest of the day! 

original size (top) vs a good 20cm taken off the hem (bottom)

 I adore the slight curve of the bodice and the sweet pleats in the front and back, you see them more in the back and heck, it's cute!


The May-Belle pattern is available on the Project Run & Play shop as well as 19 other new patterns! Also, there's an adult May-Belle directly on Iris May - however it is in dutch! I feel it wouldn't be too difficult to sew up so I'm very tempted to get it to get some matchy-matchy happening with my favourite girl!




 There is a giveaway happening on my Instagram, so pop over to enter! 



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