A little trip to Cali

Well, it's been a while since my last post. Life has been a bit crazy - but I'm hoping to get my sewing time back soon!  In the meantime, I'm in California, celebrating my sister's 25th wedding anniversary.  It is pretty special to see two people with an amazing marriage renew their vows.  I was lucky enough to be there the first time too!

I made my dress for the event.  The lesson learned for me in this make:

1.  It's worth saving fabric in your stash for the right pattern

2.  Don't be afraid to try different patterns together to get something you are going to like.

What do you mean, Tommie?  Well, the original pattern called for a gathered waist skirt.  The picture looked great on the model, but my readers, you already know about my rectangle shape issue, right?  Not so good on me - you know chunky monkey belly is not cute.  For the first time ever, I modified one pattern to work with another.  The top is from See and Sew B5307.  I actually attached the skirt as called for in the pattern and HATED it.  So I ripped it off and re-cut the skirt from the Selfish Seamstress' Coffee Date dress.  Much better!

And, here it is!

I'm glad I didn't give up and I made it into a dress I would actually wear.  It's a little low cut, but the hubs likes it!  Ha!

Oh yeah!  How great is this fabric?  I loved it when I saw it & knew I wanted a summer dress.  I'm happy I picked up three yards.  That circle skirt took a bit of fabric. I also an quite proud of the stripy mid drift section.  A nice design touch, if I do say so myself.