Completed Sewing Project: SpringGreen Dress

It's done! Three weeks from my initial posting about this dress, it's finally completed and ready for a day out on the town!

First off, yes, yellow. Yellow was my backup color after hunting high and low for mint green swiss dot fabric. When I found plenty of pale yellow fabric and matching lace... I took it as a sign. Even if it's completely off from my croqui and from my original idea (and the NAME!), I'm still super pleased with it.

The fit? Perfect! Of course there are a few things I would change the second time around making this pattern, but for what it is, I'm super pleased. The time spent working on the bodice was completely worth it and I'm glad I spent at least a week making sure I knew that piece in and out. The only thing I can say I don't really care for is the bias binding on the armholes... the pattern called for it, but I think next time I might just construct it the same way as the neckline.

Talking about the neckline, the lace detailing is all hand sewn. That took a couple days to arrange properly and then handsew to the shell fabric by hand. I'm glad I came out reasonably... it had potential to look like a ruff straight from Elizabethan England.

As for the skirt piece, I ended up using a rectangle 80'' wide, just like my favorite brand dresses. I'm super happy I went with that measurement because anything more would have just been an obnoxious poof and would have looked terrible around my natural waist.

What took the longest time (besides fitting)? Ruffling. I don't have a gathering or ruffling foot so I'll be investing in one of those things soon... 15$ machine part which I'll be hounding on eBay for. For this dress, I had to buy a legit zipper foot for my machine which I'm glad I did- it was a piece I'd been avoiding buying for ages.

The inside is completely lined because the swiss dot cotton is considerably thin, but I'm happy to say it also gives the entire garment more body. And as for the headpiece... I just winged that with fabric and lace scraps. I originally thought I wanted more of a beret-thing, but I think the size of the circle headpiece more than makes up for it. I sewed hair pins into the bottom of it so no unnecessary ribbon to hold it down!

Date Started: May 24th
Date Finished: June 14 (4 days off from my deadline!)
Fabric: ~3y 100% Cotton Swiss Dot Fabric (8$ p/y), ~2y Rayon lining fabric (2.50$ p/y)
Pattern: McCall's M5972 + rectangle skirt
Notions: 3.5y White Venice lace (2.50$ p/y), 9y Yellow lace (1.50$ p/y), Hook and eye + zipper (from stash)
Time to complete: Uh. I lost track, but at least 24h-- and that's a conservative estimate!
First worn: Yesterday! But no full outfit pictures were taken, so those will be posted at a later time.
Wear again?: Of course! I absolutely love it!
Total Price: ~55$ (eep!)


As for upcoming sewing projects-- I have a few things I'm planning for an Etsy shop. I also want to make myself some plain-ol' lolita style skirts for use at work:

Not super frilly, just cute and nice for work. I'm so sick and tired of wearing jeans. I'm thinking at least one white, one black, one similar to the grey color above, and a couple seasonally printed ones that match my work shirt (gah.) Maybe this will finally get me to buy a few new pairs of ballerina flats.