The Summer Girl Sundress in a B6453

When was my last Me-Made-Monday post?  Too long ago if you ask me, so today I thought I’d do something about that.  Last week I finally sewed, and it was hard not to post this make any sooner.  I finished it last Monday and took pics for it last Wednesday.  Yesterday I got everything edited and posted here for today.  It’s another successful start to the blogging week, woo hoo!  (I missed Friday’s, I know, and I will update you all on last week tomorrow.  🙂 )

For today, I’m going to show off this new little dress of mine, and tell you all a bit about it.  I like to think of these me-made posts as outfit posts as well.

I accessorized with a red balloon, how appropriate right?  It was hot this particular day and it only took a few minutes for the sweat to start dripping down my cheek.  I took these photos using the camera remote on my iPhone, and it wasn’t until I got inside that I could tell if they came out alright or not.  It was so sunny so the thumbnails on the screen were a little hard to see.

I was happy with the final results, all except the pictures I took of the back of the dress, but those hardly ever come out right for me; so, oh, well.  Really, had the rest of the pictures not come out that well, I probably would have just over edited them.  It was too hot to go out and try again.

Now for the construction of the dress.  Let me start off by telling you about the fabric.  It’s just lovely, isn’t it?  And I like how it isn’t so awfully wrinkly, like a lot of my cotton dresses are.  I wore this dress all day and the wrinkles and creases weren’t that bad at all.  I might even be able to get away with wearing it one more time and not have to iron it.

Cotton + Steel Jubilee Balloons in blue is the name of fabric, and I got it from Fabric.com.  The Cotton + Steel line of fabric is my newest favorite.  I love how original all the prints are!

I had three yards, but since I ended up not making my skirt as full as it could be, I have enough left over for a top or bottom of something else.  One of these days I am going to have to stash bust and make some creations with my leftovers.  Or, I will be all ready for the next dress scrap quilt – once I get the one I am working on now finished.  So many projects!

This dress was my second attempt at Gertie’s B6453.  You can find the last one I made here.  After that last one, I thought to size down, and I right away cut the pattern to the size 10.  I left the straps the same length as the last time and they are still adjusted almost as much as they can be adjusted.  I took 1/2 inch off of the bodice, but then thought that I might have taken too much off, so when I sewed it to the skirt I only sewed a 3/8 in seam allowance instead of the 5/8 in.  I maybe should have stuck with my initial thought.  Next time.  Although, I think I am going to size down once more on my princess seams on the next make cause they could go in just a bit at the top by the underarm.  Also, I do need to cut some length off of those straps.

I couldn’t figure out the way the instructions were telling me to do the top part of one side of the zipper.  I tried but it wasn’t making sense so I just did the zipper like I knew how for a lapped zipper, and ignored the instructions for that.  It still came out nicely I think.  There are pockets, of course, and there’s one little extra finishing touch to this one…

It is labeled!  I love the way my labels came out.  I can’t wait to get more in so I can put a label on every single dress that I have made.

One last thing: I mentioned that I didn’t make the skirt as full as it could be.  What I did here was just cut out two panels the width of the material that coincided with the length of the pattern pieces.  I cut one of these panels in half for the back, and that was it.  A lot less gathers and a little less fuller skirt, but still full enough I’d say.  Perfect, actually.  I love it!

Any and all comments are welcomed.  Please drop me a line; I’d love to hear what you have to say.  As always, thanks for reading!