A Butterfly Saltspring

When I bought this fabric a couple weeks ago I immediately knew that I wanted to sew it up into another Saltspring dress.  But then time slipped away (as it usually does) and I eventually made my peace with the fact that I probably wasn’t going to get around to starting this project by the end of the summer.  But then I turned a whole year older the other week and Ben gave me the greatest gift you could give a mother of two – the gift of time.  Time to do some really fantastic things with him and the kids and time to be all by myself.  It was bliss.   And with that perfect gift I had enough time to cut, sew, and finish this dress just in time for the last hurrah of summer around here. 

The fabric is a Valori Wells Cocoon voile  and it is both lovely and vibrant.  I was a little concerned in making the dress that the skirt might be a little too sheer since it's not lined and honestly I’m still a little on the fence about it.  In regular light I think it’s absolutely fine, but I’m worried that in direct sunlight it might be slightly see-through.  I’m thinking that in the name of modesty (and just to be on the safe side) I may go pick up a slip at the store before I wear the dress in polite company.  

As for the pattern, I lengthened the skirt by about two inches since I found my first version to be the perfect length before hemming and I knew that I was going to have to hem this version.  I decided to sew the hem by hand with a catch stitch and while it felt like it took an eternity to sew it was completely worth it in the end because invisible hems are kind of awesome.  I also used an invisible zipper on the back but that choice was mainly dictated by the fact that that’s all I had laying around the house and I was too lazy to drag myself to the store to buy a regular one.  Given that the back of this dress is quite different than the back of a regular dress I was a bit worried that an invisible zipper wouldn’t work, but in the end it seems to have worked just fine.

I do have to say that the two most frustrating parts of making this dress were making those damn little straps and threading the elastic through the waistband.  I tried to make the thinnest straps possible and even with the help of my nifty fabric turner I just could not get those suckers right-side out so in the end I decided to make the straps a wee bit thicker.  No big deal.  And for some reason I also struggled like hell to get my elastic past the seams when threading it through the waistband.  But after a good half hour of shoving it through the casing I finally showed it who’s boss and got the elastic through.  Victory at last! 

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to twirl and sashay around town in my new dress.  See ya!