Flowers to the max!

(I am really really sorry about that title. Not sorry enough to change it, but...sorry.) For once I've got a seasonally appropriate garment to share, woohoo!

Although I've had a bit of a love-hate relationship with this pattern lately, my "tried and true" Simplicity 4070 bodice came through on this one! All in all, this dress only took me a couple of hours, and was the perfect palate cleanser after a recent sewing fail.

I picked up this fabric last year after I fell off the wagon with my 2014 stash bust, and before I signed up for this year's try. It's a pretty sheer cotton with swiss dots and, of course, flowers! I think it was only $1.50 a yard at the Vogue Fabrics warehouse sale (minus an extra 15% off coupon!), and I'm glad it hasn't lingered in my stash like some of the other goodies I've picked up there over the years. (The spring sale was this past weekend, and I'm immensely proud of myself that I only picked up 2 new pieces (okay, okay, aside from some Simpson's quilting cotton for my mom (FINE, it's mostly for me))). 

As usual, I had to do my cross-back straps - these things really are a lifesaver that prevent me constantly needing to pull them up. The skirt is basically a big pleated tube, but after wearing it for a day, I realized it was kind of hard to walk quickly or take long strides in it, so I added a slit (which I did completely wrong, honestly, but hey, live and learn).

The top's completely underlined in mystery white fabric from the stash, but the bottom's only underlined to the knee (which didn't show up in any of my pictures, oops). 

 

I love maxi dresses, I really do, but I kept catching glimpses of myself while we were out shopping and was worried I looked frumpy. I think the pictures look fine, but...I don't know. Does anyone else ever get that feeling?

(Also, though I have not managed to take a single picture of it (outside of new posts), Me-Made May is going well! I've got a couple more pieces to throw into rotation before the end of the month, but I'm confident it won't be a problem.)

Spring has sprung!

At least on my dress...If I can't have flowers in real life yet, at least I can have them on my clothes. Floral prints seem to be the only things I want to work with these days, and I know I'm not the only one. Glad to see that trend continuing this year!

This dress actually has a bit of a back story. Last...May, maybe? I cut out B5748 with about a yard of this pretty quilting cotton that I picked up at a *major* estate sale. (I'm honestly still upset at myself that I didn't get more while I was there/have a better look around. This lady was the ultimate fabric hoarded.) I didn't have enough floral fabric to cut the bodice on the fold, and the skirt had to be pretty tiny with what was left over, but I got it all sewn together pretty quickly (using more quilting cotton to line the bodice). I was so excited about it that I even cut out a second right away. I wore this to work one day, and then had my mom take some pics for me to post over a long weekend. It was only when reviewing and editing those pictures that I realized just how SHORT the dress was! 

I definitely didn't feel comfortable wearing it out anymore, but with all of the craziness going on last summer, this got thrown into the UFO bin for me to deal with later. Well, later ended up being a bit longer than I thought, but I finally pulled this out last weekend, when I was in the mood to sew but didn't quite feel like starting anything new. I found some matching red quilting cotton and added about 4-5" to the length. I was worried it wouldn't look right, but I think it looks pretty meant to be here, right?

Obviously quilting cotton gets pretty wrinkly, but all in all, I'm happy with this dress. I even got a compliment from a random lady on the street yesterday!

Here's my awkward back view. I like that it's cut a little lower - although I'm really not sure I'd wear it without a cardigan...

Has spring sprung where you are yet? If not, what "cheats" are you using to deal with it?

I think I jinxed us

After a long, horrible winter, we finally started to get some sunshine and warm weather in Chicago last week (the high got up to 75!). Since I was in both a spring and a stashbusting spirit, I decided to whip up a flowery circle skirt in which to enjoy the goodness.

Unfortunately, by the time I got around to taking these pictures late last week, the weather had already started to turn, eventually terminating in 4-5 inches of snow yesterday! 

I picked up 1.5 yards of this fabric from Hancock (I think) a while back, and it's some sort of stretchy denim-looking cotton. It was really easy to work with and I managed to get really clean lines at the hem (bias bound, of course), waist, and zip. 

Seriously, this is probably my best zip insertion to-date! Although you can see in this picture that the skirt is probably just a little too big...I'd like to think I'll go back and take it in a little, but in all likelihood too many other things will get pushed to the forefront.

Since this print (coupled with a circle skirt) could easily border on too saccharine, I tried to "tough" it up a bit with some grey and a moto jacket. (Alas, a black moto jacket really would have come in handy here! Add it to the to-do list...)

One last swirly pic, because circle skirts are just too fun! 

Side note - hopefully I'm back on track with my posting schedule this week. I've got some general goals for this year, but my biggest one is that I'm trying to post once a week. With this one exception, I've been doing pretty well this year, no? 

Like everyone in North America, I'm over this winter. What are your spring sewing plans while you dream of warmer weather?