a new dress

    Last year I was browsing around a local fabric store that was going out of business and ran across a box of .10 cent patterns. I grabbed a couple that had something or other I liked (I have a habit of rarely making one entire pattern -- I'll use the waist from one, the skirt from another, and design the bodice myself; you know.)

Well, when Steve's sister announced her August wedding I thought to myself "Maybe I'll make a new dress to wear to that." I rarely make things for myself, but this was a matter of necessity -- I had no intention of being pregnant again this August and it's been so long since I've been anything BUT pregnant that I have no clothes! The clothes I had before JL was born, of course, are nowhere close to fitting.
So, digging through my pattern drawer I found one of those .10 cent patterns and got to thinking it might make a nice dress just like it was. It was Butterick 4657.

I was thinking of something in a light blue or pale pink -- something cool and summery. So I found the prettiest gray/blue chiffon on a great sale, bought all my material and notions, and then forgot about it.
Until June, about 2 weeks before we left for a month in Alaska!
I was half tempted to skip it, being in the middle of about 7 other projects at the time, but I really had nothing else to wear! So, telling myself, "how hard can this be, I'm using a pattern?!", I wrangelled a day without the kids and I started to cut it out. And kept cutting, and cutting, and cutting. The crazy pattern uses over 60 pieces, counting the lining, underlining, interfacing, and chiffon! Then, after I got everything cut out and started trying to figure out how all those pieces went together, I realized I had cut the fusible interfacing backwards! Most clothes are symmetrical-- so you don't really have to pay attention to the side of the interfacing you are cutting, but this dress is completely asymmetrical!
I didn't have enough material to re-cut the interfacing, and I wasn't going to waste my precious day, so I just decided to completely reverse the dress -- the chiffon having no real right or wrong side, I could just flip it all over.
Well, if you think figuring out how 60 pieces go together is easy (just follow the directions, right?), you should try following the directions backwards!

Somehow it all came together, and I think this is my most favorite dress I've ever made!

(Previously my favorite was this '50s 

style one I made for a client in a

beautiful blue-green embroidered

faux-silk.)

Here it is!

Isn't it sweet and summery?

 

 

Don't you love the ruched bodice?

 

And that waterfall skirt?

 

I didn't have the "purchased pin" the pattern called for at the waist, so I made up a few little roses to use instead. Then, I was a little uncomfortable with how low the neckline was and was going to add a little pannel, but my grandmother (an amazing seamstress, she's taught me so much!) suggested a little lace. I love the look of the lace with the chiffon! So soft and feminine. We added a little lace to the roses too, to tie the look together, and attached the whole thing to a couple bar pins to make it removeable for washing.

 I can't wait to wear it!