BWOF 05-2009-114 Summer Dress

I completely forgot to take photos of my Mom's Mother's Day shirt- it turned out great and really looks good on her, but I didn't think to get photos.

In other news though, I did finish BWOF 05-2009-114 which is a great little summer dress! I didn't think twice about it when I flipped past the photo of it because the dress is completely obscured by all sorts of accessories and artsy camera angling. I did like the line drawing though. Ultimately I decided based on yardage though. I had some fabric that I recently found in a box that hasn't been opened since I packed up my college apartment (so it has moved three times with me unopened) and I decided it was about time to make something out of it. This dress fit the yardage bill and voila! Here we are!

From Grillo Originals

The fabric is some kind of cotton batik with a bit of stretch. I'm actually surprised I bought so much of it since I bought it in college, I think I wound up with almost 2 1/2 yards.

Yesterday the weather here was really nice, it was 80 degrees, but today was a bit cooler and I hadn't finished the dress in time to wear it yesterday so today I'm wearing it with a jacket that was given to me and that has never matched anything in my closet- until today! Speak up if you think it still doesn't match anything in my closet. Also- look at my shoes from the above photo- do they really go? Hubby says yes, but I'm not sure how I feel about the cream plus white deal.

From Grillo Originals

The sleeves are rolled up until I can find some matching topstitching thread to move the cuffs up. The sleeves are about 4 inches too long (my arms aren't THAT short). I think I can probably take at least 2 1/2 inches off without the sleeves looking too crazy. Then maybe they'll be sort of fashionably long instead of "Ok little girl, where's your mommy," long.

I'm about to go post a real review on pattern review. So if you want to see it it will be on the widget to the right momentarily. Have a great weekend!

Dress- DONE!

March already? What happened? I finished my muslin for this dress about a week and a half ago. Good thing on that muslin too, as Hubby pointed out it "showed my religion" so I added a bit of ease in the hips. The top fit beautifully, so that's good to note. I wound up making a size 12 and adding almost 4" of ease in the hips. It's probably a little too much at this point, but there's nothing worse than a tight dress to make you feel chunkier than you are, so for now it will stay as is.

This is the back view- no, the bow is not crooked. It wasn't fastened in the first photo, but this dress looks so blah without a body in it that I decided no to mess around with the photos that much. You'll have to wait 'till I wear it to work Monday and force Hubby to take better photos (with a body in it) to see how FABULOUS this dress is. I'm completely smitten with it. There will be many more where this came from.

And here's the front. Again, "meh" on the hanger- yowza on the body.

This is actually the first dress I've ever made. I've made lots of pants, some skirts, lots and lots of tops... never a dress. I bought this pattern when I first discovered A Dress A Day and wanted to sew it as a Christmas dress in red with a black lace overlay over the top but never got around to it. I'm glad now that I didn't get around to it then. Over the last two years I have discovered the value of tracing patterns rather than cutting them out and I've really cemented the value of muslins in my stubborn little head. So it turned out a million times better than it would've.

I did line/underline the top part, but not the bottom. The whole thing is basically cheap poly fabric, but I think it looks and feels nice anyway. It should be a sturdy go-to dress. I had to line the top because I was afraid it would be see-through but when I thought more about it I realized that I didn't want the pink to show on the neckline so I put the facings in over the lining, serged their edges and sewed them down where they belong. It worked out to make an interesting inside anyway. I would say the inside looks like a basic cheapy kind of dress really, but as I said, it should stand up to a lot of abuse and it looks rockin' so I'm happy with it.

Now I'm trying to figure out if I'm going to make BWOF 09-2008-114 in a blue cotton but with a v-neckline or 09-2008-124 which I bought some fake suede leopard print stuff for. Fun times! We'll see what happens next.