The “SPRING IS HERE!” Dress

It’s official, spring is here! And with it comes beautiful weather and windstorms of pollen and dust – wonderful for those of us with allergies and asthma. But I suppose it’s better than being stuck in a polar vortex of snowy doom, amirite?

To celebrate spring (and because I need more cute dresses in my life), I busted out a super-cute, super-girly pink flowery dress!

This kind of makes me want to run and twirl in a field of flowers, but then I remember I live in Arizona so a field of flowers is hard to come by. But I am so happy with how this turned out!

Let’s start with the pattern… or should I say patterns? I wanted to use Butterick 5781, but didn’t want to attempt the pleated skirt with the scuba knit fabric. Things would get a little too bulky and I’ve tried sewing it with a knit fabric before, which didn’t turn out as perfect as planned. I still wanted pockets because now I’m spoiled and want POCKETS IN ALL THE THINGS. I remembered how flattering the Sewaholic Cambie view A skirt was and voila! The perfect Franken-pattern!

Sneaky chicken photo-bomb

It took me a few tries to get the top and bottom bits matching properly, but look at that seam matching! The princess seam in the top flows right into the pocket and the side seams match. I am so relieved this worked.

Pockets!

Now let’s talk about the fabric. It’s a “techno scuba knit” from GirlCharlee.com, and I have to be honest – when I received it, I wasn’t expecting the print to be so large and the fabric to feel so…. weird. It sat in my stash for a season until inspiration struck. I am now OBSESSED with this fabric! It sews so easily and it’s the most comfortable fabric I’ve sewn with. It’s got great stretch and recovery and it feels great against the skin.

I cut a size 6 in both patterns since I wanted some negative ease with this fabric. I added 1/2″ to the bodice since the original had the waist seam almost at my ribs. One issue I have with the Butterick pattern is I have to always take out a big chunk out of the top back pieces because there’s usually crazy gaping there. I took out a whole 1 and 1/8″ from the top center back and graded down gradually to the waist.

Chicken Butt

And since it stretches so nicely, I omitted the back zipper so I can just pull this dress on over my head. It also feels like secret pajamas when I wear it, so I have a feeling this will get a lot of wear. DD also told me it’s his favorite dress I have made so far, so that’s another incentive for me to wear it. 🙂

I used Freya (my serger) for the construction and top-stitched the seams down with a stretch stitch on Odin (my sewing machine). I like how the top-stitching keeps everything in place and it looks neat. 🙂 I made my own bias binding and used it around the neck and armholes to keep everything from stretching out.

I did not use a stretch stitch for the hem since it’s large enough to fit over my head without stretching, plus a straight stitch is way faster! I did two rows of stitching for the hem. I am still frightened to use a twin needle and know that this is what they’re made for – maybe one of these days I will conquer my fear.

Oh, and check out my shoes! I got these on sale at DSW last year, but I think they’re also available on Modcloth.com. I feel super girly when I wear these and usually get compliments!

OK, sewing blogosphere – I need your opinion. I have DD’s nephew’s wedding to attend in two weeks and I need to figure out which dress to wear. When I was making this dress, I imagined I would wear it to the wedding but then I remembered I had other fun dresses I could wear, too! I also am attending the rehearsal dinner, so I’ll need a dress for that as well.

What do you think?

1: Super girly spring dress,

2: Mullet dress, or

3. Fun strappy Asian-inspired dress?

I’m thinking 1 and 3 for the festivities, but am not sure which one to wear to the wedding and which to wear for the rehearsal dinner.

What are your thoughts?

-RED