Bring back the Milkmaid dresses! | the perfect summer dress using a free pattern

Hello everyone and welcome to a new video!
Instead of letting these projects languish in videos files and my wardrobe, I thought I would finally take the time to share them with you through what I'm calling the Archive initiative! (lol) I find it hard to motivate myself to care about projects once they're completed and they enter my normal wardrobe, and I move on to the next project, which means if I don't share them immediately it most likely will never be shared! But this was a great project, using a free pattern that had great results, so I really wanted to share it in case you, too, want to make a wonderful summer dress.
The pattern I used was the Anthea Milkmaid Pattern by Mood Fabrics on their Mood Sewciety blog: www.moodfabric... I used under three meters of lightweight crepe fabric for this, with the same quantity out of polycotton sheeting as an interlining, and a small length of ribbon for the neckline and bias tape for the them (as well as a zipper and some elastic thread for my shirred back panel addition). If you want more information on shirred panels, I go into a little more detail on my Reformation inspired dress video: • I tried to make a Refo...
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[@liv97497]

Mood's pattern library is so underrated! There are so many good patterns, and the people behind it usually write out great instructions and explanations on how to put it together. And if I remember correctly you can ask questions if you have any doubts. It's a wonderful resource if you feel like you can't splurge on specific patterns.

[@GM-tx7yp]

If you're not a beginner, it is a great resource! I've found that they don't answer questions about patterns made over 2 years ago, so that's something to keep in mind.

[@BeccaM4]

I have some mood patterns from a few years ago that are no longer available so if you see something I definitely recommend downloading it right away in case it disappears

[@rodentary]

I often start projects when i have the whim not the season. I feel this in my soul

[@dakotah9636]

I have made four dresses from this pattern. Did my own thing for the sleeves and skirts (one with tiered ruffles, two circle skirts and one simple gathered skirt). I really like it! I did make bust adjustments.

[@waterbitten]

Hello, what type of fabric have you used? And what would you recommend as someone with more experience with the pattern.

[@dakotah9636]

@@waterbitten I flat lined all the pieces like she did in the video to add strength because I wanted it to be pretty fitted. My favorite one I made out of linen, I love the structure and drape. One is made of rayon and has a fun floaty feel to it (though I don’t like working with it as much as cotton or linen). Two out of quilting cotton (the gathered and tiered skirt ones) and they turned out nice and summery too.

[@waterbitten]

@dakotah9636 you've just made my day! I prefer working with cotton and linen too so I was hoping you'd say you had success with them! 👌🏽👏🏽 thank you so much for the insights.

[@CatsCostumery]

I think I'm going to try a linen one next!

[@Ameia108]

Хочу попробовать из льна с хлопком, 50/50.

[@twinnish]

That’s perfect. Really lovely on you.

[@therewillbecatswithgwenhwyfar]

I am 100% still on board with the style of dress!

[@therewillbecatswithgwenhwyfar]

It's so pretty!!!

[@rosefeel_vlog]

I like your dress 💖 I love shirring as well. it's very comfortable and fits well. I just made a summer dress with shirring.

[@apriljodoin9643]

Love the fabric🎉

[@sabrinadavis8355]

I watched this yesterday, printed the pattern last night and am now cutting the fabric out 😂 ive been meaning to make this since mood released it in 2022 and somehow, have been putting it off for whatever reason... thanks for giving me the push to finally do it ❤ also ive been a fan for maybe 3 years, i love all your work!

[@CatsCostumery]

I'm so glad to hear it!! If you post about it somewhere, pls tag me, I'd love to see it :)

[@indiabilly]

That looks lovely on you, I have been looking for a milkmaid dress pattern for ages so thank you xx

[@ushere5791]

cat, it's beautiful! so flattering on you!

[@xequth]

I was JUST looking at this pattern and wondering if it was any good! How fortuitous! I was also considering adding a shirred back (well, mock-shirring as a way to use up excess mask elastic), so this could not come at a better time to help me out. Your dress turned out super cute, the print works super well and I love it with the sleeves off the shoulder! This is absolutely going to be my next project now!

[@theculteredvulture13]

It's lovely Cat. A great example of springtime femininity. Thanks for sharing!

[@davidmbolden]

Absolutely lovely! I think your fabric choice is perfect - and the price was definitely a plus! The Mood Patterns are definitely great, and generally better than most. They also have some great fabric, and their recommendations for notions are generally spot on.

[@MichelleSMV]

The dress came out so cute! I didn’t realise Mood had some great patterns. I should look at them more!

[@susankellam8844]

Lovely floral print & so cute on you!

[@GaiaCarney]

Thanks for sharing this, @CatsCostumery ⭐️ The dress is lovely!

[@adrianamancuso4917]

So lovely!!! I love that fabric's floral pattern. ❤

[@mandylavida]

Super cute

[@MicheleKire]

It's such a cute dress. I started a mock up with old sheeting and liked it so much I just kept going with it. I found the instruction really confusing and harder than they needed to be. I constructed the front first, then the back, joined them with the straps encasing the top edges of each where they joined (raw edge to the armseye) then inserted the fully constructed sleeves and overlocked the raw edges. It was much easier.

[@morgonerlenstar]

That is a super cute dress. Now I have to go hunt for this pattern ❤

[@stevezytveld6585]

A lovely dress. Well done & enjoy! - Cathy (&, accidently, Steve), Ottawa/Bytown/Pimisi

[@susanpilling8849]

Very pretty. Love the fabric and like the alterations to the pattern. It really suits you and shows that if you can do some pretty basic sewing then you can save a lot. 🩵

[@silvi9094]

I made a milkmaid dress with only smoking last year for my niece, this year I will make the same dress for myself.

[@susanrobertson984]

Oh now I am inspired. I have so much fabric on my stash and it is hot all of a sudden. But what I NEED is a jacket to wear to the office. Sigh … me wan dresses not work wear!

[@robintheparttimesewer6798]

The dress is really lovely. I haven’t yet made a mood pattern but I do love looking through the library of patterns. There are some great looking patterns that I do want to try someday!

[@WoWBloodrend]

You're one of my new favourites and I came to check earlier today to see if I had missed any new videos. Today is a good day 😁 thank you! I got excited and forgot to add in so glad you're covering this pattern as I've wanted to tackle it myself but I'm very much a beginner so this will help massively! 🙏

[@magicalaurie]

Thank you for sharing this from your archive, Cat. I was just thinking about whether to post from my archive or not. I agree- Bring back the Milkmaid dresses!

[@gadgetgirl02]

What a great fabric choice, and the final version looks fantastic on you! If you're considering suggestions, one way to gild this lily a bit is to add strap keepers to the armhole straps. That way, bra straps won't peek out. It depends on how you feel about bra straps, of course.

[@lesleyharris525]

Such a pretty dress, it looks lovely on you ❤

[@bunhelsingslegacy3549]

That is super cute and I've already downloaded the pattern myself! Good call on the sleeves, I'm becoming a fan of that style of waist attachment as well. as being womewhat of a brick shaped torso I need to reduce all the bulk I can at the waist and folding over anything seems to make it just that much worse. I almost feel like the fit on you would have been improved if the bust cutout had gone a bit lower, definitely something to think about if I ever make this, as my own bust seems to be...migrating... I'd also do my own thing for the skirts, the 5-6 yard fabric recommendation for this dress sounds a bit insane to me, I'm a big fan of the rectangles-and-gores skirt, it's so fabric-efficient, is good for not messing too badly with most patterns and and I can make it as full as I want it... I adore the shirring idea but histrically I do not like the feel of it against my skin. I've got two colours of kinda sheer cotton voile and I think if I was careful I could probably use one to line the other and make the dress reversible (I don't particularly have hips so there's a pretty good chance I could wriggle into it without a zipper). Yet another thing on the very long to-do list!! :) I'm also tempted to make it just as a shirt/shift to wear under my kirtle pinafore dress. Then again maybe I coul do just that using my basic princess seam bodice block and figuringout how to do a bust cutout, the puff sleeves are pretty simple using a slash and dpread on a basic sleeve block... Oooh the possibilities!!

[@DipityS]

Such a lovely dress - and I'm always blown away by your excellent choice of fabric colours and patterns - this one with the flowers and blue is absolutely delightful 😊

[@hanae4496]

Waouh this dress is so lovely on you 🤩 this floral fabric so nice! I love your altérations... I was looking for a milkmaid dress pattern... Thanks for your sharing and inspiration... I didn't know mood free pattern 👍😉

[@craftykez]

Please don't let the season worry you. It may be summer where you are but it's winter here and when it's winter where you are it's summer here. So it's never really the wrong season somewhere around the world

[@pippaseaspirit4415]

The fabric is very pretty - but I can’t stand polyester! I sweat like a horse in hot weather, and as polyester doesn’t breathe, underneath it I’m as wet and dripping as if I had just come out of the shower! Yuk! I love the milkmaid dress 😻😻

[@gaildawkins9508]

I had no idea about the Mood free patterns. Thank you for sharing. :)

[@RandomPerson-bb2gp]

If you put fusible interfacing on the waist piece, it would help with the rippling

[@annlidslot8212]

Hi, Thank you. That was a delightful video about a very sweet dress. I hope you live in a part of the world where you can get a lot of use of it. I have to ponder on if I should visit Mood's pattern library. Yours, Ann

[@Ameia108]

Круто! Так красиво! И вам очень идет платье! Сошью себе такое. Мне нравится такой интересный лиф. Спасибо❤

[@sarahmwalsh]

I love it so much! I'd love to make it in linen!!

[@canucknancy4257]

It's gorgeous!

[@MrVst1]

I love this dress. I saw the pattern on moods website but, I've never sown anything in my life.

[@amandamientkiewicz1846]

I love this pattern I will have to make it soon

[@kikidevine694]

I plan to go the whole hog and just do a regency frock. When I finish my other 500 WIPs. I wish I could use a sewing machine 😂😂😂

[@newcreature222]

I love is dress you made it’s a masterpiece you look sensational 👌🥳🙌❤

[@theoriginalnik]

I use mood patterns for everything, alter as needed, and basically put them together how I want because I don’t find their instructions particularly helpful in most cases

[@rjbrewer09]

great job… it turned out great😊

[@charlottereynolds1419]

I love the mood fabrics patterns but I'm always scared of busts like this not being flattering on me. You've given me hope though! Just wondering if you could slide a couple of soft bones in the waist section to stop them collapsing?

[@CatsCostumery]

Yes, I think that would definitely help!!

[@katwitanruna]

It’s cute!!

[@TealCheetah]

What a cute dress

[@AllTheHappySquirrels]

Yes, please!

[@ginalou5774]

That looks fantastic 😊

[@AliceLupin1]

It looks like to me that if you were to make the bottom of the breast part go down more, instead of shortening the bottom of the waist part, that might help. Otherwise, this dress is mega cute. I love the fabric! And using bias tape as a hem is a cool idea!

[@elizabethschlieper121]

I agree. I think the fit issue was the bust being a bit small and pushing the dress down. I've had the same issue with another Mood pattern, so I was on the lookout for it here!

[@nataliestanchevski4628]

Very pretty!

[@MelzoA.]

Maybe you can ad boning to the bust-waist part?

[@CatsCostumery]

that would help for sure!

[@lorenzaaguilera5777]

Never been so early to anything hahahah great video btw!

[@elizabethrobles9934]

So very lovely on you ❤

[@whatnow8362]

You could add a little elastic to the sleeve to help them stay on better.

[@CatsCostumery]

Great idea!

[@katewill7302]

Super cute!💙🧡

[@brookedonaldson1354]

So cute 🥰 ❤

[@SewlockHolmes]

This is such a cute dress!! Does anyone have the timestamp for the finished hem? I was really excited to see that part with the bias tape finish but couldn't quite catch a timestamp with it visible.

[@CatsCostumery]

Ah, I'm sorry, it's so hard to get a full length shot in my sewing room! I'll try and post a close up on Instagram :)

[@GigiFl]

Love it! 😍

[@Serenity_Craft]

I love the dress, but the ribbon really caught my eye. What a great color, is it sewed in on the ends, or can you change it out with other colors for different days of wear? I have been working on trying to find ways to make my clothing more changeable, so I look for simple little things like changing out a ribbon to give something a slight new look.

[@CatsCostumery]

I sewed it on at the ends, but if you want to make it swappable, you could just hand tack it and swap it out for sure!

[@terainkognita5622]

Ohhhhh, Im do gonna try this!!! You're inspiring :) I Have a question tho, if you have the sheering at back, do you need to add the zipper?

[@bunhelsingslegacy3549]

I'm going to guess it depends on your body shape, I'm shaped like a post so probably could get away with it, if you're more curvy, you might not.

[@terainkognita5622]

@@bunhelsingslegacy3549 thank you for the answer :) Im the "hourglass" type, so zipper it is 😅

[@RandomPerson-bb2gp]

You absolutely can forgo the zipper IF the shirring can stretch wide enough to accommodate your shoulders (putting over your head) OR hips (I e standing into the dress). You’ll just have to measure your overall finished waist and make sure it’s wide enough

[@CatsCostumery]

This is it - my shirring was not so loose that I could get it over my shoulders or hips without the zipper, so I kept the zipper!

[@christineb8148]

Is there a commercial pattern for the white square necked top you are wearing in the sewing part of this video?

[@margaritamcorona5363]

Is this pattern true to recommended size? Does it run big or small?

[@CatsCostumery]

I think it's pretty true to size, but I did add the shirring to the back panel which made it very forgiving

[@margaritamcorona5363]

​@CatsCostumery thank you