In the frosting vs. cake debate, lately I've been feeling that maybe I make too much cake. I definitely could use more wearable, everyday handmade pieces in my wardrobe (even now I still feel like I have nothing to wear in the morning, which probably just means that I need to do more laundry!). With summer approaching and the temperatures here in Florida already getting into the 90s, I've had lots of pretty, summery dresses on the brain. Which is more of a fantasy of the summer I want to have rather than the reality of old tank tops and jeans I will actually end up wearing. But...whatever. I feel like I've done my time sewing practical things. It's time to do some dreaming!
I've had this dress (yes, this EXACT dress) floating around in my mind ever since I spotted this happy floral fabric on a trip to Ikea last summer. I immediately grabbed 2 yards of it...and then left it sitting in my stash. Until a couple of weeks ago when Amy sent me a picture of this field covered in wildflowers. Then this dress came back to my mind. So, yes, I have reached some new level of frivolous sewing where I make a dress to match a picture I've imagined in my head. Screw practicality!
In my dream world I live in a hobbit-like cottage in a hill surrounded by this field with all of these flowers that never die because it's 75 degrees all the time and I'm wearing this dress while having tea on a picnic blanket reading a book or something. I don't even drink tea, people! But I do in this world so stay with me here...
If you're in awe of those wildflowers let me just tell you there were 10x as many two weeks ago! It was insane. Literally an entire field of them! Now it's just a smallish patch, but enough for pretty photos :)
Ok, back to reality. Facts!
Pattern - Coffee Date Dress for the bodice, Cambie Dress for the skirt. The Cambie full skirt is officially my favorite skirt of all time.
Fabric - Ikea Barbro fabric. I'm usually wary of using non-apparel fabrics but this lightweight cotton worked out perfectly!
Modifications - Lined the bodice with plain cotton muslin, lowered the back neckline into a V (This fixed some fitting issues I was having there). Omitted the pockets in the skirt, although now I regret doing so. Pockets are always worth the extra time!
I used my Uniquely You dressform (now with a stand - yay!) to do all of the fitting adjustments. After cutting my fabric out, I pinned the bodice pieces onto my dressform and marked where it needed adjusting. I wound up taking in the side seams and the darts by quite a bit. When I originally made up the Coffee Date Dress I was a total sewing noob and printed out a 34 when I should have used the 32, so that's why I had to adjust it so much. That also accounts for why I never wear my original Coffee Date Dress...but that's another story!
I didn't try on the dress at all until it was time to hem the skirt and it fit perfectly! So the dressform gets an A+ from me. I'm so glad I finally got that thing put together!
I thought while making this dress that I have no idea where I would wear
it. It's extremely girly and flowery and twee and I will be turning 30
this year (I keep reminding myself...gah!). And I never see other girls
here wearing stuff like this. But, you know...I love it! It totally
makes me happy and so I should just wear it anyway.
Besides, now I can do this!
Labels: dress, finished projects, sewing
