Everyone loves Disney’s Minnie Mouse. With any Brother embroidery machine you can stitch Minnie Mouse wearing her signature polka dot fashions, sometimes demure or flirty, shy or playful and sometimes even old fashioned. In this sundress, she shows her quirky, whimsical 2017 presentation as Minnie who Rocks the Dot! Available at iBroidery.com,
the 2 ½” x almost 4” design is a unique expression of Minnie’s individuality. Any Minnie fan—and who isn’t?—will love it. Image 2 embroidery

Requirements

• Pattern: Any yoked sundress style will do. This out of print treasure from my pattern library fit the bill.

  Image 3 pattern Image 3 pattern

Designs:

• Minnie—Kimberli, I can’t find her on ibroidery or on my Dream. I received this in a 5 design folder that June sent me a while ago simply labeled Disney. There the design is numbered nfdmo09_NF13.pes. It is in another folder, “New Minnie,” that was sent to me by Laura who departed shortly thereafter. I hope you can find a source for this and that I didn’t pick a design which is unavailable. I am attaching the design to this message.
• Musical notes extracted from ibroidery.com design number 200910074
• Text from PE design

Materials

• Fabric: white for the bodices and polka dot print for the skirt.
• Ribbon trim: two 54” lengths of 1”ribbon are needed. Grosgrain works well, but I made a tube from an 11 x 20” scrap and used that in place of ribbon. It was a disaster. If I gave you all the reasons and details, you would fall asleep before you finished. I suggest you take the time to find a suitable grosgrain.
• Notions: stabilizer: 4 black buttons, black piping, iron on tearaway
  Because the design is stitch intensive, additionally a piece of standard tearaway was floated under the hoop.

Directions

Embroidery

1. Open the Minnie design and add text and musical notes if desired.

2. Cut a white rectangle generously large enough for the front yoke with embroidery design and ribbon trim. Iron on stabilizer.
3. Embroider design.

  Image 4 emb foot height screen Image 4 emb foot height screen

Yokes

1. Cut 1 front for lining and two back yokes. Note: It’s probably just my problem, but I often have difficulty folding the lining up over the skirt gathers. It seems too short for easy stitching. For that reason, I cut the linings a ¼” longer.
2. Stitch yoke front to lining at top. Press seam open then stitch along armscyes.
3. Repeat with back yoke pieces.

  Image 5 yokes Image 5 yokes

4. Mark center front yoke at bottom. Mark from yoke upper corners to raw bottom edge for ribbon placement.
5. Repeat on back yoke.

  Image 6 yokes piped, marked Image 6 yokes piped, marked

6. Join piping to bottom of yokes, beginning and ending ½” inside ribbon placement lines. Remove 3/4” of piping filler to reduce bulk when ribbon covers the raw piping edge.

  Image 7 yoke ribbon attached Image 7 yoke ribbon attached

7. Pin ribbon in place, matching outer edge with placement line. The bottom of the ribbon should match the 3/8” seam allowance and fall just below the stitching on the piping. Mitre corners and pin in place.
8. Stitch only the vertical sides of the straps and not across the mitre or the bottom. Use fine thread, a fine needle and a narrow zig zag, W 1.5, L 1.5.
9. Repeat ribbon attachment on back yoke.

Skirt

1. Cut front and back skirts according to pattern. I chose a 30” width and 24” length.
2. Join skirts at sides with French seams and mark center front and center back.
3. Run three rows of gathering threads along the top of the skirt, with the middle row falling along the seam line, 3/8” from the top.

4. Slip the bodice inside the skirt, right sides together. Pin skirt and bodice together, matching side seams and skirt center marks.
5. Draw up gathers, distribute evenly between pins and add more pins to hold the gathers in place. Seam skirt to bodice, using the middle gathering thread as a guide.

6. Make any necessary adjustments to the mitres in order to cover the piping raw edge. Pin the ribbon so that the bottom edge butts up to the gathered skirt.
7. Stitch the ribbon to the gathered skirt.
8. Remove pins which held lining up away from skirt stitching. Allow it to hang down as before.
9. Stitch across the mitres and along the top of the ribbon through bodice and lining.
10. Repeat for second yoke.

Finishing

1. Fold the edge of the lining to the inside and hand stitch it to the bodice front and back, concealing the raw edges of the skirt gathers.
2. Remove visible gathering threads.
3. Finish ends of ribbon ties with a fray block or tiny hem.
4. Hem to desired length.
5. Stitch black buttons to each mitred corner.
6. Find a little model who can really Rock the Dot.