Made With Harts: Ikatee Pattern—Stockholm

I was so excited to be able to create this precious Ikatee Stockholm dress with Embrace Solid Double Gauze Cobalt. Read on to hear more about my experience working with this fabric and the PDF Ikatee patterns for the first time.

Lately I’ve been diving back into sewing garments for myself and I’ve found a ton of joy and purpose in being able to create quality, custom items for myself and my daughter. I’ve sewn for most of my life, but lately I’ve been trying to make conscious and deliberate choices with the items I create. I’m making meaningful swaps in my household in an attempt to waste less and keep more. A large part of that is reducing my families clothing waste. From avoiding fast fashion, to cutting up my husband’s old button up shirts for quilting, to thrifting, and to creatively cutting fabrics to get more use out the each textile, I’m doing it.

I’d been eyeing the Ikatee patterns for a while but was still going through a lot of free patterns I had stockpiled on Pinterest and my iBooks for years. Finally, the opportunity arrived to try the patterns through Harts and I jumped at it.

My experience with sewing was mostly alterations (I’m 5’11”), pegging clothes and sewing patches cuz punk’s not dead, and creating weird one of a kind items to wear to various parties and functions in my teens and twenties. I’d never had an organic style personally and so I’d never ever worked with a fabric as light and delicate as this double gauze. I love the deeply saturated cobalt color and chose it for my daughter because I thought it would just really compliment her coloring as well as the Ikatee pattern.

As expected, I struggled at first. The fabric stretched and frayed in ways I didn’t expect; found myself having to work more slowly than my regular pace. The Ikatee patterns are originally en Français so there were parts of the instructions that I had to go over a few times to make sure I understood. I wouldn’t say things got lost in translation so much as I probably should have read the instructions completely before I started to save myself some time.

In the end the project turned out sooooo cute I could just die. I tried some embroidery for the first time as well and I think the end result is just precious. The running stitch and monogram really add the handmade touch that compliments the whimsy of classic children’s garments such as the Stockholm Ikatee pattern!