Cheetah Suede Pinafore Dress with JOANN

This post is sponsored by JOANN. It may contain affiliate links but all words, reviews and opinions are my own.

I am so excited to share this project with you all today. JOANN stores recently asked if I would make something using their brand new faux suede cheetah fabric and I thought of the Dani Pinafore Dress by Seamwork. I’ve had this pattern in my “patterns to make someday” folder and this faux suede was perfect for it. I don’t usually tend to go for animal prints so I was excited to try something new!

Upon finishing and photographing this dress, I now want all the animal print. I am thrilled with this cheetah print dress!

Now, it does look a little “loose” on me, but it’s made to be that way. This dress doesn’t have any closures so you simply pull it on over your head to put it on. For that reason, it does have a looser fit. You can always add a zipper to this pattern if you do desire a more fitted look.

I sewed up the size 0, my measurements being: Bust-33, Waist-27, Hips-35. I did add 6″ of length to the skirt pieces with no other modifications to the pattern. This dress is fully lined, and interesting to sew. (Interesting in a good way!). The suede fabric was fun to work with, and I felt so professional fully lining the inside of my dress. I used a brown lining fabric from my local JOANN store. Check out the “guts” of my dress below. I found using clips instead of pins to be SUPER handy with this fabric.

I would note that when using faux suede- make sure to use a low heat setting on your iron and lots of steam. I also used some linen fabric (cotton would work too) as a press cloth when ironing on the front side of the dress as to not leave any burn marks on my fabric.

It’s also very important to grade all of your seams really well to eliminate unnecessary bulk in your seams.

This faux suede fabric is machine washable (crazy, right!?). I did not prewash my fabric because I didn’t realize this until the project was finished. I might try testing a swatch through the wash and see how it goes. I plan to wear this to church or special occasions (like a rare fancy date night) so I’m mostly not too worried about it getting dirty.

I styled my Dani Pinafore dress with a black ready to wear turtle neck that I happened to have on hand, although I would have preferred to make the Nikko Top if time had permitted. I want to make a short sleeve turtle neck to pair with this dress for “California winters” ahead. I think this dress would also be super cute styled down with a white tee and black vans. Lots of fun style options here!

Overall, I’m obsessed with this cheetah dress! This fabric also comes in this gray color way. JOANN also has a really pretty cheetah/ leopard silky print and I think I need to go buy for a fun top for fall. Rawr, gimme all the animal print. Also, I really want this sweater from Madewell now, too. I went to the mall recently and lemme tell yah- cheetah/leopard print was evvverywhere. So there you go.