A Quartet of Easy Summer Dresses

I am having a generally lovely summer and  I hope all of you are, too. I haven't had much time to blog, but I'm on Instagram now (code name PoldaPop), and if you want to see what I'm up to, I post regularly there. I'm on a kick to post a photo a day under the hashtags #sewdailyphoto and #whatIsewedtoday.

A couple months back I posted about a dress that my best friend and I have been passing back and forth for at least a decade. I think I actually bought the dress new around 1996 or 1997. This past winter, I finally made a pattern of it and it's been my dress of choice for the summer. In addition to the purple one, I now have two more!

This one is a chevron rayon challis I bought with a coupon from Hancock Fabrics.

See how well it goes with my new bag and new shoes?

The second one is a Joel Dewberry print that I just love:

Same shoes and bag!

I did a bit of tweaking to the pattern to make the waist a tiny bit more fitted (took it in about 1.5" in the waist). This dress doesn't have any closures so the test is whether or not you can get the dress on past your bust. Since my bust consists primarily of foam padding, it works.

This is a perfect summer dress: it's light and airy, I can run after the kids and ride my bike in it, and I can dress is up with nice shoes or kick around with flip flops. I can make it up in 2.5 hours from cutting to finishing, so it's an easy make. And I can squeeze it out of 2 yards of fabric if I cut the back bodice piece with a center back seam (and cut the halves out separately). Win.

The third member of the quartet is one that I made for a client. This is a rayon challis from Anna Maria Horner. BTW, I am so happy that some of the big names in quilting cotton design  now have their prints in some apparel fabric like rayon challis and voile, too.

And the fourth member of the quartet was actually made by my best friend when I was back visiting her in June. I brought the pattern with me and gifted her some fabric so that she could learn to make it herself. I show that off when I get the picture from her, (HINT HINT, Malinda). Here's the fabric so that you've got something to ogle:

Joel Dewberry Bungalow Dahlia in Honeysuckle

I may be done with this dress pattern for a while or I might try to make a version from jersey, maybe sleeveless. I can probably use my TNT Sew U Home Stretch bodice. Hmmmm, I'm off to dig through my jersey stash!

Self-Drafted Dress

I blogged about the jacket from this outfit a few days ago, but in my typical long-wind-y-ness, I had to break the post in two to talk about the dress.

The dress is ridiculously easy to make: no closures, bias tape to face neckline, serged rolled hem, four darts, four pieces total (unless you don't have enough fabric and you have to cut the front and back bodice with a center seam, ahem). I copied a dress I wore a lot in my late 20's that I eventually gifted to my best friend who's been wearing it for the last 10 years. I borrowed the dress back and made her a new version for Christmas using my trusted Patternmaking for Perfect Fit book by Steffani Lincecum to make the pattern. I then made one for myself with some adjustments. When I tried the dress on to see if I wanted to make any fit changes, it felt way too baby-dollish for this mama.

And when I put on a belt, the belt sat about 1.5" lower than the waist on the dress.

So I took care of those lengths and got this dress:

I used a rayon challis and I love how cool and drapey it is. This will feel wonderful when the temperature is in the 90's this summer.

And for someone who wears a lot of pencil skirts, it's nice to be able to twirl every now and again!

The fabric was so lightweight that my test hem was a mess. I used a technique from Angela Wolf's Craftsy Creative Serging class (highly recommend) and pressed the hem under 1/2" so that I could serge a rolled hem through a double layer of fabric. This took care of the messy stitches. I just trimmed away the excess fabric carefully with sharp scissors.

I'll be looking for some cute rayon challis prints this summer to make a few more of these (they only take about 90 minutes to make now that I have the pattern) and I'd like to try the dress with a poplin, too. I think I've found this summer's go-to easy make, and it's not even summer yet!

Stash and Scraps Gifts

I enjoy making handmade gifts for the girls' teachers each year, as well as for certain close family and friends. Our budget was tight this year (isn't everyone's??) so I was determined that my gifts would be made from stash and scraps I already had on hand.

I wrote about my day of cutting a mountain of jersey scraps into usable pieces for teacher scarves. That mountain of scraps eventually became a small hill of scarves:

I made about 25 in all before Christmas. Half of these became gifts for teachers, half went into my Etsy shop to see what would happen. When the scarves sold out in three days, I dove back into my stash to see what other unused pieces could be turned into scarves and made another fifteen over the holidays (infinity scarves make for a great "filler project" when I want to make something but I don't have much time or I'm too brain dead to do something more complicated). There's a million tutorials out there if you want to make your own - I found I didn't need one and just experimented until I found the most efficient steps (cut, sew long side together to make a tube, turn right side out, stitch short ends right sides together until I can't anymore, slip stitch the opening closed). My shop is full again and we'll see if things move as fast now that folks aren't looking for stocking stuffers!

The most complicated scarf I made was this one:

I've been watching Angela Wolf's Creative Serging course on Craftsy, and I wanted to try out a technique I'd seen there. I used the rolled hem stitch on my serger to make faux piping at the seams and in a couple other random places. I like the effect! I want to try it again with specialty thread, but I've got to wait - that stuff is pricey! I've been stalking the Sew It's For Sale yahoo group, but someone always beats me to the wooly nylon thread that I want. I hate being out-stalked like that.

I made one garment gift this year, a dress for my best friend. We wear the same size so we periodically trade clothes. This dress is one of mine that I gave to Malinda a few years ago. It's a simple throw-on summer dress. I brought it back with me this summer with the intention of making a pattern from the old dress. It's an odd project for the middle of winter, but I suddenly got a bug up my butt to tackle it.

Old dress:

I used the same combination of the rub-off and pin through methods that I've used before from Steffani Lincecum's book.  This dress was particularly easy to copy because there's only three pattern pieces: front bodice, back bodice, and front/back skirt.  The dress has some darts to shape it a bit, but no closure - you just slip in on over your head.  I used some rayon challis from my stash to make it up for Malinda:

 I think it looks better with a belt, but doesn't almost everything??

I did a rolled hem on the serger for the hem, and used another tip from the Creative Serging class. The fabric was so thin and floaty that my test didn't look very good. I pressed the hem under by 1/4" so that I could serge through two layers, and it made all the difference. Thanks, Angela!!

I did a simple turn-and-stitch hem on the sleeves and then finished the neckline with bias tape I made from another rayon challis in my stash. I love the purple surprise on the inside!

Since we're the same basic size, I do confess I made a version of this dress for myself as well (from the purple fabric that I used for the bias tape). But I'll wait to showcase that one when I can wear it with strappy sandals outside. While the dress would really pop against the snow, I think my blue toes and pained expression would probably ruin the look.