Painted Summer dress

Yeah, I made a summer dress just before winter started in Wellington! I am that kind of person! Somehow it is also my first dress made in 2015 - I've been making shirts and pants and tops last few months. I'm quite happy with it although dresses are usually my favourite garments to sew.

Photobombing are Nikki and Penny 

So I've been bit obsessed with shirts lately. Only two of them made it to my blog so far but there is more of them. So to have a break I decided to make... a shirtdress ;) McCall's 7084 to be exact.

The pattern is lovely and I'm so in love with pattern cover illustration. I bought some striped cotton with an intention of making an exact copy of it in the future. The pattern comes with 4 sleeve and 2 skirt variations.

All those photos were taken by lovely Laura

I decided to make view D with sleeve tabs. I really really wanted skirt with godets but I didn't have enough fabric. Instead of that I managed to add extra flare to the skirt pieces (2-4cm on each seam) I also had to shorten the sleeves and cut pockets out of some scraps in my stash. The whole arranging pattern pieces on my piece of fabric was like playing tetris!

My fabric is actually a 3 yard piece of quilting cotton by Lida Enche called painted summer. I love little hummingbirds among those flowers! It was my Trade Me score. It was great to sew with :)

It took me almost half an hour to set on the size. Considering my body, patterns and finished garment measurements I just confused myself. I assumed I needed a FBA and that didn't make things easier. I finally decided to just stop thinking and start doing and traced size 18 onto pattern cloth. After pinning it and checking the fit I decided to add a 2 cm wide wedge to the bust line of the side front piece and I added 0.5 cm to the length of the front. After basting the back and front pieces I had to take out some fabric above the bust - it seems that I have hollow upper chest ;) I think it worked well - dress fits nicely and there is no gaping and no extra fabric anywhere.

Just because I always mess things up I got the bottom pieces the wrong way around so the seams don't meet at the waist. Busy pattern hides it so I'm not very worried but next time I will be labeling my pieces with greater care. I added polka dot pockets - I had no fabric left for the pockets!

I wanted blue buttons to match my birds but I couldn't find any suitable ones in my local notions shop. So I got some pearl, white and silver, and chrome buttons but I couldn't decide! I asked for opinions on Instagram and went with majority of votes - chrome buttons. I'm happy with it.

And a close up on pockets, buttons and sleeve tabs :)