The Ladies Caroline Dress and Peplum: It’s HERE!

Oh my, oh my, oh my!!! It is finally here!

The Ladies Caroline is now available for sale on Etsy, Craftsy, and Kollabora. I have also added a discounted bundle when you buy the Ladies Dress with the ever popular girl’s Caroline Party Dress. Perhaps we will be seeing a lot of matching Easter dresses?

There are so many options with this dress:

* 5 sleeve lengths: sleeveless, cap, short, 3/4 length, and long.

* 4 skirt lengths: peplum, above knee, at knee, and below knee.

* 2 skirt styles: gathered and pleated

* 2 neckline heights

* optional peter pan collar

* optional inseam pockets

* optional belt loops

The Ladies Caroline features princess seams, which gives such a flattering shape to any body type. Because women come in all different shapes and sizes, it is always important to make a bodice “muslin” first to see how it fits and what alterations might be needed to make it fit perfectly. Often times, a few nips and tucks will be the difference between a good fitting dress and a perfect fitting dress. Those muslins are worth the few extra minutes.

The pattern is sized 0-22 and includes a full FBA (full bust adjustment) tutorial for those that need it. The back has an invisible zipper closure, and I promise that my tutorial and pictures will make it easy to understand.

To say that this was a labor of love is most definitely an understatement. I knew this dress would be tough, but I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but after weeks of testing, tweaking, and revising it is perfectly perfect.

My testers (all 50 of them by the time you include my pre-testers) were complete rock stars. I seriously can’t believe how amazing they were and how much they helped me get this just right. They went above and beyond this time and I love how their dresses and tops came out.

I really wish I could share each and every individual photo from my testers, but like I said, I had around 50 testers and several made more than one dress. Instead, I will share a few to show how different this dress can look depending on fabric choices and options you use.

Long sleeves, gathered skirt, inseam pockets

(Lexi Made)

Long sleeves, lower neckline, gathered skirt, belt loops

(Cotton Belle Boutique)

Sleeveless peplum, gathered skirt, peter pan collar

Long sleeve peplum, lower neckline, pleated skirt

Sleeveless, gathered skirt, inseam pockets, belt loops, FBA
(Crafty Biggers)

Short sleeves, gathered skirt, below knee

Cap sleeves, belt loops, inseam pockets, above knee

(Stitched by Crystal)

Long sleeve, peplum, peter pan collar, pleated skirt

(Becca Duval Photography)

Sleeveless, gathered skirt, inseam pockets and below knee

This beautiful tester is 5 months pregnant, so she used the shortening line on the pattern to raise up the bodice to accomodate her growing belly.

3/4 sleeve, peplum, pleated skirt, belt loops

3/4 sleeves, modified pleats

Sleeveless with color blocking

Coloring blocking isn’t part of the pattern, but very easy and several of the testers did it. Simply color block the bodice and the skirt and then match up the seams when attaching. I can’t wait to try this method myself.

This dress can be made with knits, but isn’t apart of the tutorial. It can be done very simply by eliminating the center back and possibly sizing down, depending on your measurements. She did it with an interlock and it turned out great!