So, needless to say, flipping the Tinny looked perfect to me.

Obviously, it only took me 5 seconds to realize how wrong I was!!

First, because this is a difficult pattern to flip (the original pattern already includes 4 different collars, 2 types of sleeves and 3 skirts styles for a total of 168 different looks with just one pattern. Yep, that many!!), and second, because this month competitors are amongst the most amazing seamstress I know – I follow their blogs and I’m always amazed by their creativity.

Of course, if you look at the bright side, at least you know that there will be quite a few gorgeous flips this month!

For my Tinny flip version I decided to do something I usually don’t do: I asked my daughter what was her favorite part of the dress and promised her that that would be the “one” feature I was not going to change.

You may have guessed by now what was her favorite feature: the circle skirt (yes, An got it right in her introductory post. Little girls love to twirl!!).

Keeping the circle skirt left me with fewer options (because it’s such a strong feature), yet I still managed to incorporate a few of my favorite things as well:

A set of delicate petal-shaped sleeves

I drafted the sleeve piece based on a Japanese book. The sleeves are fully lined and although I decided not to use piping for this version, I suppose this would be a lovely addition to a future version (it could be okay, if I had skipped the lace at the neckline, right? With the lace, I think it would be “too much”).

A lower neckline at the front and a v-neck back, framed with a lovely double cotton lace (which is fast becoming my summer sewing trademark).

The neckline in the original Tinny is much closer because of the collar. As I was not including a collar, I decided to lower the front neckline a bit and drafted the v-neck back following a softer line (she’s only 5 and I was not really looking for anything too dramatic). I got my inspiration from a couple of vintage sewing patterns, which are also among my favorite (sewing) things.

And finally, a bold white sash making this dress even more adorable.

I sewed the sash front directly on the bodice and gathered the sash ties at the waistline. I drafted quite a big sash in order to achieve a big bow at the back (sorry, I couldn’t help myself. I love big bows).

A few additional mods to the original pattern include the hidden buttonhole in the back (instead of the invisible zipper. I used 2 small buttons) and the handmade bias tape for the neckline using the same fabric of the dress (to add contrast).

The fabrics used were also selected by my daughter (based on a pre-selection made by me). I was not surprised by her choices as I knew she would select a blue palette (Hint: what’s the color of Cinderella’s dress?). We used a pale blue organic cotton bought from a local shop for the dress and white pique cotton for the sash. The dress bodice is also fully lined with white cotton batiste for added comfort.

As promised to my little girl, the circle skirt was left unchanged and so lots and lots of twirls did occur during this photo session …

Unfortunately, we had to stick with indoor pictures as it was raining outside.

PS. It was fun to flip the Tinny, but to be honest the most delightful part was to see how excited my daughter was when she saw the completed dress in the morning and couldn’t wait to try it on. I wish I could freeze that moment …

Thank you Ashley and Emily for inviting me! Hope you love my flip as much as we do!!

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