Wednesday, May 2, 2012

The Good Deeds Dress

I've been meaning to start a blog for a long time now. I've always managed to put it off though. It's been one of those irrational fears of mine, kind of like sewing a zipper. I've been sewing since I was 5 years old and yet I was 31 before I finally made myself sew a zipper onto something. Of course I immediately laughed at myself once I'd finally done it. It didn't look perfect but it certainly wasn't as hard as I'd had myself convinced that it would be. I'm really hoping blogging will be the same ;)  

Like most fears people don't tend to face them without some sort of reason, something pressing that forces you to finally suck it up and push past whatever it is that has always stopped you before. So what was my reason? What was it that finally kicked my butt into gear and convinced me to give this whole blogging thing a whirl?  The Good Deeds Dress! What better reason to start a blog than to be able to offer up a free pattern?



You see, a few months ago I discovered this really amazing blog called Hopeful Threads. Every month Kristy organizes a project of some charitable sort. She has an amazing group of followers with generous hearts and mad sewing skills. During the month of April the project was to sew 100 dresses to donate to Dress a Girl Around the World.  Not only did they meet that goal but they more than tripled it! Like I said, an amazing group of women! <3  
A dear friend of mine, Becca from Night Owl's Menagerie is also a fan of Hopeful Threads. Becca is a kind and generous soul with a passion for sewing and a penchant for hoarding fabric so of course she wanted to sew up some dresses for the April project. All she needed was a pattern...  She knew exactly what she wanted in a dress, something simple but versatile and most importantly fast and easy to sew. Now, if you're not familiar with Becca and what she does let me just stop for a second and tell you. Becca draws! She draws with amazing amount of talent and loads of creativity. Everything from cute little peanuts for the allergy warning posters she sells on Zazzle to business logos and even little cartoon girls brushing their hair for my daughters PECS book! In fact you can see the logo she recently made for me right up at the top of this blog <3
So as I was saying... Becca, who draws, of course drew me exactly what she wanted in a dress! I drafted the pattern, graded it and then we appealed to a wonderful group of mutual friends to sew up some tester dresses for their daughters. I have to say, the group of  women who test my patterns are fabulous! They sewed up their dresses quickly, happily and with no compensation other than the smile it put on their faces to help out. The final product is a cute but simple dress. A fast and easy project that will hopefully inspire you and many other seamstresses to sew up a dress or two and donate a bit of handmade goodness to lots of little girls around the world!


As you can see, it is very good for dancing in! 

 You can download the pattern here or if you'd like you can head on over the to Becca's blog to download it and read her side of the story! Also be sure to check back soon as both me and Becca will be working on a few tutorials to show you how to embellish this simple dress. We've come up with a lot of fun and easy ideas to add a little frill here and there and make each dress special! 

 For more great pictures of some of the dresses sewn with this pattern check out my Flickr pool  

Although my usual policy is to welcome individuals to sew and sell garments made from Elysium patterns, this pattern is geared towards charity and goodwill sewing and as such I kindly ask that garments made with this particular pattern not be sold for profit. Feel free to make a dress for your daughter, grandchild or next door neighbor, but please keep this pattern for personal use only. Also, please note that this pattern is the intellectual property of Elysium and sale or reproduction of the pattern itself is prohibited. And last, if you know someone who would like to download the pattern, please be kind send them a link to here or the blog and not a copy of the pattern itself. 



32 comments:

  1. Beautiful, Carisa! Thank you so much for your amazing support of Hopeful Threads and for sharing your gift of design through your patterns! Very happy to have you a part of blogland...you're gonna love it! :)

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  2. Thank you so much for this darling pattern...it's so generous!

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  3. Thank you so much for sharing this! I've just gotten back into sewing and would love to whip this up for my little girl! Welcome to the blogosphere.

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  4. What an adorable dress and such a great inspiration to all of us. I have a neighbor famly who has 15 (yes 15) children living all under one roof, and they all end up sharing clothes and hand-me-downs. About half of the are girls, and girls who probably havent seen a new dress in a long time.

    They would LOVE these dresses. Thank you so much for aharing the pattern with the world :)

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  5. Carisa, I love this little dress! I am the Tucson rep for Dress a Girl Around the World and am always looking for ideas for simple dresses. I'm going to try this out this weekend. Watch for lucky little girls around the world wearing this dress!

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  6. I love that you have patterns in styles for bigger girls! I have four girls and have a hard time finding PDF patterns for the older 2. I would love the little ladie lounge pants, the sweet blossom skirt and the good deeds dress. The are all adorable!

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  7. I can't pull up the pdf file.

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  8. What a wonderful pattern! I make for Dress A Girl Around the World here in the UK and it's great to have a pattern other than pillowcase style that is a flexible fit, graded for bigger sizes and quick to make. Thank you so much for giving up your time to do this!!

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  9. Thanks so much for this pattern. I've just used it to make a dress for Dress A Girl... a great pattern!!

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  10. I'm looking forward to using this for my Dress a Girl dresses! Thank you so much (and thanks Pam (above) for putting me onto this!)

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  11. thank you so much for sharing this tutoerial and pattern.
    wish you all success in your endeavor!

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  12. Thank you for the pattern. Excited to make this for a girls' orphanage, this is more modest than a pillowcase dress. Thank you and Godspeed!

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  13. thank you so much for sharing
    http://www.mogulinteriordesigns.com/

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  14. I am just curious how this dress goes on since there is no opening other than the neckline. It seems like it would be hard to get on.

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  15. I can't wait to try this out for my little granddaughter. Thank you so much for the pattern. I am hoping to also make dresses for LDFA. You have motivated me!

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  16. I really want to make this dress for my Goddaughter but I can't figure out the pattern pieces. I don't see the skirt part in my pattern pieces. Can someone fill in a beginner sewer. thanks for your time!

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    1. There are no pattern pieces for the skirt, you just cut rectangles according to the size based on the chart. Read through your directions from the beginning.

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  18. The link to download the dress isn't working, and my daughter would like to try making this dress. Thanks for your help!

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  19. I got the bodice made, but now the instructions for the skirt are gone!

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  20. I got the bodice made, but now the instructions for the skirt are gone!

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  21. Can you email me the pattern? Kanaha at gmail dot com. I can't find the link to download it

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  22. I love this idea! I've come to the party quite late but would love to make this dress. I've looked on all the links but I can't find one that works. Any chance you could upload it again or email it? I'm just starting out sewing and this looks like a dress I could make. My email is rhiannondowding@gmail.com

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  23. Ladies the pattern is still available to download, for free, on Craftsy, I've just found it there and downloaded it. Search Craftsy under Good Deeds Dress and up it pops!

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  24. Normally I don't read article on blogs, but I would like to say that this write-up very pressured me to try and do so!
    Gold Deeds Clothing

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  26. Hi Carisa the link to download the dress isn't working. I would like to make this beautiful dress. Can you help me, please? My mail is: maricelacc1@gmail.com. I will be gratefull.

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  27. Je n'arrive pas à télécharger le modèle... Aucun lien ne fonctionne...
    Je vous laisse mon adresse mail....
    serpinskysonia@gmail.com
    Bonne et belle continuation pour votre blog !
    Bises de France... ��

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  28. Hi! I found this dress and my daughter loves it, but when I click the link it says there is no file. Can you help me?

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  29. Hello, I have the same problem with the link--"File not Found", error 404. Can you please repair the link? I just found this dress on Pinterest and want to sew a bunch this winter. So cute and looks comfy too--something different from the pillow case dresses. Thanks!

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  30. Whoops--just read some posts above and someone was kind enough to tell us you can download it from Craftsy by typing in Good Deeds Dress. It worked fine. Thanks!

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  31. Hi!
    I like this dress pattern but i can't find the pattern any where.i need it for my granddaugters at the age of 2,4,5 years old

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