I have 5,002,348 projects (not exaggerating at all, there), half-finished to nearly-finished sitting in my sewing room. But none of them were calling to me this week. None of them were exciting me... putting that usual fire under my feet when I tackle a project. I knew that I needed something new to help get me out of my funk.
So! Baby G and I did some wandering and ended up at the mall. And what do ya know, I found it. My creative inspiration. In
the display window of a little boho boutique. There in the window of this cute little store was a simple striped shift dress, with an alternating block panel along the bottom. It was so cute. So simple, but just the right amount of detail to make it interesting and unique. I went into the store to examine it more closely and I felt that ache, that thought pop into my head, "maybe you should just buy this one, right now! It's so cute!" I dared to glance at the price tag. And yep. Just what I had expected. It was waaaay more than this tight-wad was willing to pay! Haha.
Immediately afterward, I heard my mom's voice in my head, like so many times before, saying "I bet we could make that!" Haha. I can't tell you how many times I have heard my mom say that. About a million different things.
As soon as I had it in my mind to make my own version of this cute dress, my brain couldn't stop working. I immediately remembered that I had a large leftover scrap of pillow fabric -- tan and white striped. Perfect. As I drove home, my mind was racing through the steps to make it. It felt so good to feel that fire again. :)
I got home and thankfully, G was super cooperative... giving me little smiles as if he knew and was excited that I had my creative spark back and wanted to help me dive in. He went right to sleep for his nap and I excitedly dove into my new project.
Just a couple hours later, and it was done.
I love how this dress turned out, guys. It's simple, understated. But so springy. And so me. And I'll forever have a little smile about this dress when I wear it -- because it gave me back that fire. You gotta hold on to those things that pull you back to your passion... that re-spark your desire to create. It's a special thing, guys.
p.s. see if you can spot the cute little deer hiding in these pictures.... :)
--- For the full tutorial, keep reading --
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Before beginning, you will need to cut out your pattern pieces. As I often do, I will go into my closet and find a piece in my wardrobe with a similar shape as what I am making and use that to make my pattern pieces. You will need 5 pattern pieces -- DRESS FRONT, DRESS BACK, LEFT SLEEVE, RIGHT SLEEVE, AND BOTTOM PANEL. I did a v-neck for my dress, but you can just as easily do a round neck or whatever you prefer. :) I also did kind of a fake, partial sleeve instead of one that came down over my arm. But you can substitute for whatever kind of sleeve you'd like!
Okay, let's get started.
Step 1.
Take your DRESS FRONT and DRESS BACK and pin them to each other, right sides together. Sew along the shoulders and down both sides of the dress.
Step 2.
Take your SLEEVE piece and fold in half height-wise. Iron. Then fold the strip in half length-wise. Sew two ends together to form a tube. Repeat for second sleeve.
Step 3.
Take your SLEEVE pieces and pin them to armholes, right side of the sleeve piece on top of the right side of the dress piece. Sew along opening. Unfold sleeve and iron.
Step 4.
Take your BOTTOM PANEL and pin to bottom of your dress, right sides together. Sew around entire bottom. Unfold and iron.
Step 5.
Hem bottom of the dress to desired length. Add any desired topstitching.
Step 6 (not pictured)
Finish neckline. For my dress, I used bias tape. You can read a great tutorial on how to add bias tape to a v-shaped neckline here.
Great idea🤗
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