Quick dress for my daughter

I was chatting with a friend about dressmaking one morning, and we both talked about wanting a very quick and easy pattern to make basic shift or a-line dresses for our little girls.  So I whipped up a little pattern when I got home that afternoon, and it turned out pretty great!  I do need to make the arm holes a little larger for the next piece, but they're really ok as is.  I want to make this in knits, so she can throw them on easily, but she just loved this cotton print fabric, so I just added a 7" zip to the back.

Sheath Dress

I love the basic shift and sheath dresses.  I have a few patterns that seem like they would work well (New Look 6095, McCall's 6886), but it's such a simple design that I just created my own pattern in stead.  I created a very small facing piece to finish the neck and armhole edges.

I'm so happy with this one.  I can make one of these in like an hour from start to finish, and I spent about $9/piece on fabric (ITY Jersey Knit from Fabric.com). I've worn the blue one out to dinner, and it was a big hit.

Patio Chairs

My once bright red chairs have been through years of weather. The frames are still in great shape, so I made new cushion covers and some throw pillows. I seriously can't believe how much it costs to buy replacement cushions & pillows, now that I do things like this. I saved at least $400 doing this, and I made everything with zippers, so they can be easily washed.  I made interior pillows for the throws, so it will be easy to make new zip cases when I get bored with this color and pattern.  I just need to make some back cushion buttons.  The 3-dimensional corners took a little getting used to, but once I got the hang of it, it was a breeze.  I skipped the piping on the seat cushions, and I'm sure they would have looked a little better with it, but I decided it wasn't worth the extra time and stress for this go round.  Maybe in a future project.  I'm pretty satisfied without it :).

Moss Mini Skirt

One of my favorite things to have in my wardrobe is pocketed skirts.  I like the casual ones, like denim and solid chino ones because they're easy to throw on with a favorite top, and they can be dressed up or down.  So Grainline Studios has this wonderful printable pattern for the Moss Mini Skirt.  I've made two versions, and they both turned out great.  I totally nailed the fly, which I never would have believed possible, given my history with zippers.  I'd like to make some more in casual solid fabrics sometime, and I definitely want to try GS's Maritime Shorts.

Princess Seams

I found this really great pattern last year: McCall's 6741, and decided to try it as my skills were improving.  I just love the way the princess seam follows the curves of the body.  This dress is very flattering because it has the great fit of the princess seams, and the feminine fun of the flared skirt.  That said, I did NOT love sewing princess seams!  This dress has EIGHT of them (4 for the main fabric, 4 for the lining).  Well... it was certainly an opportunity for learning.  So I suffered through all eight of the seams, and by the time I finished I was ready to trash the dress and be done.  But I was actually very happy with the results!  I love the pockets too, even if I did put them together a little wrong.  By this point I was also a little better with zippers, so I consider this dress wearable.  I did use a cheap lining fabric from Joanne, and it was very uncomfortable, so I ended up cutting most of it out, leaving just a small portion of the bodice on the inside.  The main fabric is a nice linen.  It's a beautiful fabric, but definitely makes me wish I had a serger.

I revisited this pattern again this year.  This time I used a cotton poplin fabric with a little stretch.  It feels great, but I like the drape of the linen skirt a little better.  I made the dress slightly larger, because the linen one had very little breathing room, but honestly I didn't need to because of the comfort of this fabric.  I flew through the princess seams this time, and only built a small bodice portion of the lining.  That was a huge time saver, and the full lining really isn't necessary. So this version turned out really great, but I'm not crazy about the colors/print on me.  Guess I will have to make another one :)

Jersey Knit Sun Dress

My latest love is jersey knits.  They are so comfortable, they drape well and they don't need zippers! I have a stack of knits just waiting to become dresses, so stay tuned.  Anyway, I had this idea that I could Frankenstein a pattern from New Look 6571, view A, with a flared skirt from some other pattern I have.  It worked out pretty well actually.  It's a super easy pattern that probably takes me a total of 2-2.5 hours from start to finish.  So that's obviously awesome.  These will be great dresses for late summer when it's just too hot to want to wear anything with much fuss.  They're also probably pretty nice in the spring with the right cardigan.  So I have made 3 attempts so far, and still have not perfected it.  Here's the progression....

Dress 1.
Too wide in the bodice, so it exposes my bra straps, and hangs too low.  I also need to make it a little shorter, but not too much.  I love this fabric!:

Dress #2.

I had a daisy shirt years ago that I wore all the time, so I saw this fabric and it was almost exactly like the shirt I once loved, so I had to have it.  I realized pretty quickly that it does;t really work for me anymore, but I made the dress anyway.  I also made this one way too tight and way too short, so all around it's just not right for me:

Dress #3.

The print on this one is ok, but feels a little drab for my taste.  I'm pretty sure I got the fit right on it this time, but I decided to get creative and dip the neckline.  It really changed the look, and I don't like it.  Maybe it's just me.  I will be making more of these.  They are so quick and easy, and I WILL find the right combination!

Still Seeking The Perfect Sun Dress

I can never find a good basic sun dress at the mall.  We don't have the best shopping in my little town, and even on the internet, it's hard to find what I'm looking for.  Basically I just want something that is fit and flare with spaghetti straps.  I did finally find this nearly perfect dress at Old Navy.  It still doesn't have the exact silhouette I was looking for, but I was pretty happy with it, so I bought it, and traced it & made a pattern from it:

It's hard to see from the photo, but the bodice doesn't taper in well at the front, and I haven't tried to alter that just yet, but I did add pockets.  I just love having pockets on a dress :)!  The princess seams didn't come out exactly right, but I actually didn't do too bad with my first reproduction.  This was my first ever attempt at my own pattern, so I learned a lot from it!  And yes, I still need to work on my zippers:

For my second attempt, I moved the princess seam inward a little, but they still need to come in even more, and they need to taper in some toward the waist to fit my shape.  I set the pockets a bit too low, as you can see in the last picture.  This one looks cute, but I used a basic cotton fabric because I saw it & just loved the print.  So it wrinkles a little too easily, but for something I will wear occasionally it's totally worth it:

This pattern definitely requires a fabric that drapes well.  It might even be fun to try in a soft jersey knit.  I tried a pink floral linen-like fabric, and while the fabric is beautiful it's just too heavy for this pattern.  But my zippers and pockets are getting much better.