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my favorite oliver + s pattern: building block dress
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Welcome everyone to today's blog post! Please help me extend a warm welcome to Steph, who is joining us from her Twitter handle @stephysite. She’s here to share her experience with one of her favorite Oliver + S patterns and showcase some incredible versions she’s crafted. Thank you so much for taking the time to be with us today, Steph!
Hey there! I’m Steph Spann, and I’m thrilled to announce that I won the Oliver + S Building Block Dress Design Contest. I’m excited to tell you more about this journey and how it connects to my personal story, my daughter’s wardrobe, and our shared passion for Oliver + S designs.
Although I’ve technically been sewing for over 25 years, life has often taken me away from my sewing projects. But now, as I’m getting back into it, I’ve found Liesl’s patterns and guidance incredibly helpful in refining my skills beyond the beginner level. When my daughter was around her first birthday, I discovered Oliver + S and instantly fell in love. Since then, I’ve made it a priority to sew a few items for her wardrobe. I started by making numerous Music Box Jumpers (a classic favorite), along with several Family Reunion Blouses and Classic Picnic Blouses.
Our affection for Oliver + S runs deep, so every one of my daughter’s fall school photos features an outfit made from their designs. For preschool, she wore a Music Box Jumper, pre-kindergarten sported a classy Music Class Blouse, and kindergarten showcased a design we created ourselves (more on that later).
One challenge I’ve faced in pattern sewing is figuring out how to modify patterns to achieve a better fit or look. Imagine my surprise when Liesl seemed to read my mind and released the Building Block Dress book and pattern! Coincidentally, this came out just as my daughter expressed a strong interest in designing her own clothes. It felt almost like she and Oliver + S were working together to make this happen. The book arrived right before the start of the school year, just in time for a new dress for picture day. We flipped through the book and found a dress my daughter loved. Luckily, I had similar fabric on hand—can you guess which one? We got to work immediately, creating the pattern and the dress. To my astonishment, the process was seamless, the dress turned out beautifully, and it became our go-to Picture Day Dress!
The design contest kicked off not long after we finished our first dress from the book. My daughter adored the initial style, so we expanded on it and entered the “Over and Under†layered dress. The final dress resembles the original sketch but includes some tweaks: we added an extra layer of lawn fabric for the skirt lining to reduce its transparency, included an additional button at the keyhole closure, and adjusted the neckline slightly. Looking back, there are a few things I’d change, but overall, we’re very pleased with how the dress turned out. We’re calling it our New Picture Day Dress!
Let me share a bit about the creation process and the final product: This is an empire waist A-line dress in size 4 with a size 6 length. It features princess seams that flair at the skirt’s bottom, flutter sleeves, and a keyhole closure. I added a lining to both the bodice and skirt, along with facings for the armholes and overskirt. The bodice and overskirt are made from Kaufman Essex Linen Cotton in Bordeaux, while the underskirt, lining, sleeves, and facings are crafted from Liesl-designed Kaufman Woodland Clearing Floral Lawn in Coral. To create the pattern, I dusted off my old drafting kit (previously used for building plans), gathered my other tools, and commandeered the dining room table. Step by step, I drafted, redrafted, cut, and taped until I had exactly what I needed. At one point, I had five layers of paper taped together for a single piece! I ended up with 10 pieces total: six for the skirt, one for the flutter sleeve, one for the keyhole, and two for the bodice. I used French seams for the skirt’s princess seams (yes, that’s 18 French seams total!) and applied a rolled hem for the underskirt and lining. Facings were added for the overskirt hem and slit. The finishing touch was adding two buttons and thread chain loops for the keyhole closure.
With our picture day dress already chosen, I’m sure my daughter has something special planned under her flutter sleeves for our next project. Fingers crossed, and thanks for reading! A huge thank you to Liesl and everyone at Oliver + S for all they do.
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