I realize that it's only January but I am so over this winter. It's dark and it's cold and all I want to do all day is sleep and eat bread. Last year I at least had a trip to Hawaii to look forward to, but sadly this year we actually have to use our tax return a bit more responsibly. Boo! Hiss!
So what does one do when it's dark and cold and miserable outside?
Why, make summer dresses of course! (Denial is a wonderful thing.)
Also a wonderful thing? Making garments completely from your stash.
Like every other crafter out there I'm hoping to cut down on purchasing this year and use a lot of what I already own, starting with some of the beautiful fabric that's been gifted to me by some kind souls. This fabric happens to come from Cambodia by way of my mother-in-law who's lived there for the last couple of years. It's a cotton print fabric but the pattern was asymmetrical on the cut of fabric that I had so I spent a while trying to figure out exactly how I wanted to place the pattern pieces. Honestly, after sewing up the dress I wish I would have placed the pieces a bit differently. That blue flower on the front of the bodice kind of drives me crazy. But that's just me being way overly picky, right? I'll just make a point to stare at the back which is adorned with gold buttons. Oooooh, fancy.
The dress is the Oliver and S Bubble Dress that has obviously be de-bubblefied (this just involved not including the lining or the step where you gather the bottom of the dress with elastic - a super-easy modification). I opted to skip the decorative stitching around the "sleeves" since you can't see any stitching with this fabric and instead I just top-stitched around the armholes and the neckline.
As for the sizing, I chose to make a size 5 for my four and a half year old. The size four probably would have fit her better right now, but considering that it's currently 35 degrees out I don't think that she'll be wearing this little dress outside anytime soon.
Now if you'll excuse me I'm off to eat an entire loaf of soda bread and to take a nap. Wake me up when it's spring.