A sewing blog about building a functional, cohesive handmade wardrobe, one garment at a time.

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

A Seashore for spring

During a recent closet inventory, I noted that each girl could use an everyday summer dress. They each have a few church dresses, but those are reserved for Sundays as I am a believer that church clothes should be kept nice. So it was time to do a little sewing.

I set out an array of fabrics from my stash and let them choose. Little sister chose this Valori Wells linen that I got on super-sale from Jimmy Beans Wool three or four years ago. I only had a yard of it, and I had been itching to sew another Oliver+S Seashore Sundress. 


Don't mind the dirty tights.  That's how we roll around here.

I sewed up the 3T with added length for my 4.5-year old (who fits RTW size 5 perfectly). The fabric motif runs parallel to the selvage, which makes it a natural partner for the Seashore's many vertical seams.

My official excuse for not even trying to pattern match is that I was working with limited fabric. Also it was about midnight when I got started (hello, third trimester insomnia!) So I shouldn't have been surprised when I made some dumb cutting errors and the dress was too short. I didn't have enough fabric to cut new pieces, so I decided to sew a band around the bottom.


As I didn't have enough fabric to cut a single piece, and because pattern matching the rest of the dress would have been a nightmare, I decided to cut the fabric on on the cross-grain and piece it together to make the band. I messed up there, too (I think it was about 1 a.m. at this point), and didn't get the band's seams lined up with the dress's seams. Honestly at that point I didn't even care.  I had messed up so many things, I just wanted to be done. So I powered through, added some thrifted vintage-looking buttons, and gave it to her the next morning.



I took the dress out of the wash today and while the dress itself is not terribly wrinkled
(at least not by my standards, go ahead and judge), the facing did not seem to want to stay inside the dress.  Ironing the dress after every wash will get old fast so I think I might tack the facing at the side seams. Or maybe I'll even topstitch it down completely to make sure it stays put.



In any case, I got to sew the pattern again, I used up a 1-yard cut from my stash, and I filled a wardrobe hole.  Wins all around.



Happy Spring!

I made big sister's dress in the photo above, too.  That will be in my next blog post.

8 comments:

  1. Yay for new dresses!
    ( I stitch in the ditch all the seams on mine, holds the facings down)
    I hope you get some sleep soon.
    xx N

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    1. Thanks for the tip - I will do that tomorrow! (Assuming I don't end up in the sewing room at midnight again).

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  2. What beautiful fabric! And I can't remember if I managed to post my congratulations comment on your baby news - I remember trying a few times but can't recall if I succeeded or not (had sign-in issues at the time). Anyway, congrats and all the best for a good third trimester!

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  3. I actually enjoy topstitching on most of the things I make. I topstitched when I made that dress couple of years ago. :) Anyways, I wanted to say your girls look adorable in their new dresses!

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    1. I remember Emma's Seashore dress - it was so pretty! Is anyone wearing it these days?

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  4. I love this dress! It is improved by that little strip at the bottom, isn't it great when a "mistake" turns into an interesting and clever feature? Your girls are ADORABLE in their pretty new spring dresses!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Inder! When I look at the dress all I see is the lack of pattern matching and mismatched seams ... it's always like that, though, isn't it?

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