Quick Easter Project & Pattern Prep w/Freezer Paper

I cooked up a plan late last night to make an Easter dress for my step daughter.  It’s only Thursday afternoon – I have plenty of time, right?  (I’m hoping to get some other accessories done as well, but we’ll see….)

So, there’s the pattern I’m going to use:  McCall's #5742.  There is a collar on this dress, and it surprises me that each of the dresses shown don’t use a contrasting color!  I’m going to be doing the petticoat/lining, collar, and waist tie in the bright peacock, and the rest of the dress in the purple patterned fabric.

There are a ton of tutorials out there for making your own patterns for children’s dresses, but honestly, for 99c, I’ll purchase the pattern and save myself the hassle of starting from scratch!  (And then I’ll have time to blog about it, too!

I’m going to switch gears here for a minute and talk about pattern prep and storage.  The first thing you’re going to do is separate out all the pieces of the pattern.  It doesn’t have to be pretty, just hack them apart, but be careful not to slice into the pattern pieces themselves.

Then, iron all your pieces flat.  This is a very important step – whether you go on to the freezer paper or not, you won’t get an accurate pattern cut from wrinkly pieces!

Now this is my favorite part…..jigsaw the pieces on freezer paper, (my favorite sewing friend) and with an iron set on “Medium”, iron the pieces onto the shiny (plasticized) side of the freezer paper.  Go a bit slowly, and be sure not to iron any creases into the pattern – it’ll be permanent!  Also take care that the pieces don’t overlap!

Then cut out all your pieces.  You can cut on the size that you’re going to use, cut around the pattern pieces, or cut the largest size.  (I usually cut out the largest size, and trace smaller sizes, so I always have a pristine pattern)

I like to re-fold my pattern pieces so the piece number is visible whenever possible.  (Makes it a lot easier to find that one piece that you need to grab out of the stack!)

And finally, storage!  I’m pretty terrible about keeping my patterns together, and I’ve found that if I put everything in a large gallon sized Ziploc bag, rather than try to stuff it all back in the original envelope, I’m more apt to keep the pattern all together.