A Dress In Mind

With the success of the Minoru jacket, my first pattern sewing experience, I knew my sewing cravings wouldn't stop anytime soon.  Just a few days later I made my way to the store to pick up the Simplicity Cynthia Rowley 1873 dress pattern.  While I was there I also found an awesome fabric, but unfortunately there was only a yard left.  I started perusing the aisles and thinking what I could do.  I immediately got overwhelmed and wanted to make a hundred versions of the dress, as I always do when I get overly excited about a project, and settled on a seer sucker to make up the dress bodice.

The seer sucker, something I've never used before, was a little too bright compared to the skirt fabric, so I let it soak in a tea dye bath for a little over an hour.  After that I washed the fabrics together and they were a pretty close match!  Success.  I went on to cut the pattern pieces out and started brainstorming alterations I might want.  My first variation came when I still didn't have enough fabric to make up the skirt with my print fabric, so that became the bodice while the seer sucker would make up the skirt.  I have always wanted a peter pan collar, so I think I'll have to give it a try.  I also wanted to add some pockets because pockets are my favorite, but I got a little ahead of myself and put the skirt together too fast for me to remember the plan.  Oh well, I'll save the pockets for the next dress.

Hopefully all continues to go well and I have as much, if not more, success than my first sewing adventure.  I learned a lot during that process, but I still have plenty to figure out.  This pattern involves pleating and darts so I'm sure I'll have my fair share of learning experiences.  I hope it fits!  I don't exactly own any tape measuring devices or dress form, so I go solely off guesstimates.  It worked out last time and I'm hoping my luck extends to this project as well.  I guess we'll see!