When Caroline from Olumis Fabrics approached me to ask if I would like to be a guest sewist (I don't like this word, nor sewer, because they don't seem like 'real' words. It should be dressmaker or seamstress perhaps?) for her fabric brand, I jumped at the chance. I felt very honoured that my sewing was good enough!



I was allowed to pick 1m of fabric, and decided to pick enough to make an outfit for my daughter, which you can read about here. I was not expecting to get a surprise extra piece of fabric, to which my daughter squealed with delight, to the point of glass shattering pitch. Thankfully, no windows were harmed in the unpacking of the fabrics ;)



I needed to pick a pattern that would show off the fabric to its full potential. So I turned to non-English patterns in an international sewing group I recently joined on FaceBook. With the help of Layla we found a cute dress pattern on makerist.de, the Zuckerschnecke dress by Herzens Bunt Design.



Now you might be thinking, are you mad? Why pick a pattern that is entirely in German? Well, I like a challenge! With the help of my trusty google translate app, I came across some very dubious translations, but I got there in the end. Like with many, many European patterns, seam allowance needed to be added, which I did with the help of my quilting ruler, yes it's tedious, but once done, the patterns are easy to cut and sew. And yes, this was the look on my face at some of the translations that google brought up!



The biggest problem I had with this particular pattern, was that sizing was simply based on height, so I had no real idea if the dress would fit skinny Layla or not. I matched up the bodice pieces with a recent t-shirt I made her, and decided that a touch more ease in the dress might be a good thing for growing room.



The next hurdle was to find a coordinating plain jersey to go with the spring animals. This was easily remedied because Caroline is always happy to help, and sent me a pic with the available plain jerseys she had, with the spring animals to check. Of course, Layla picked the pink, so I ordered it up and a few days later, happy post arrived.



I used the pale pink for the top of the bodice, the cap sleeves and the bottom band of the skirt. This left a large section to fill with the woodland animal print to show it off to its full extent.



I have to admit, it's not my cup of tea, I'm not too into really cutesy stuff, but Layla most definitely is, and this is the PERFECT combination for her! There is currently a pre-order running in the Olumis Fabric FaceBook group, and yes, my children have picked a print each that they've pestered me to buy!

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*Disclaimer: I was sent some of this fabric for free, in return for sewing it up and sharing the pictures. Some of the links in the post are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission (the price stays the same for you) which will help me in the future to buy more patterns to share them with you!*