Monday, June 17, 2013

Pink Summer Dress with Free Pattern Link



What would summer be without summer dresses?
Frankly, I can't even comprehend it.
 A girl can never have too many cute summer dresses,
and this pretty pink number I sewed back in April is one of my newest additions.

 This is what I was trying to copy.


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 Isn't this just adorable?
This dress was based off of this free pattern, which was a spin off from this pattern.

Borrowing from the look of this dress, and some of the ideas from the free pattern,
I mashed the two together and kind of made it up as I went along.
 
 Taking my hip measurements, adding some extra for ease and seam allowance,
I created a tube that I sewed up in the back, leaving a slit.
This was the body of the dress.
 




For the bodice I needed a guide, so I traced the bodice from another dress I liked.

I make it sound like no big deal, but for a beginner, this took a long time, 
including some frustrating set backs.

In the free pattern, a full bodice top is used, from arm to arm.
I tried that...it didn't turn out symmetrical...big mess...nope.
 Don't do that.

Instead I used half of my bodice pattern and cut it out on a fold.
Much better.
 
There was still a little glitch though...as it turned out, my shoulder straps weren't long enough, 
so I had to improvise.
Truthfully, it turned out to be a unique design alteration that I like!

I made a small tube strap extension, sewed it in between my too-short straps,
then I gathered it in the middle and sewed it...
resulting in a cute little bow. 


 

 
Personally, I think my mistake turned into a fun element!
What do you think? 


Next, I gathered the top of the dress tube,
added a box pleat to the center front,
then sewed it to the bodice.

 


 I added an elastic waist band, hemmed up the bottom and was done. 




It looks best with a chunky belt.

This dress is really comfortable, and I like the shorter length...
sometimes it just gets too hot here to wear anything long!
 All in all, a great casual day dress.




Oh yeah, and isn't that fabric lovely?
Would you believe I picked it up at a local store for $0.50 a yard?!
I ended up with 5 yards of this pretty pink!

I still have lots left over...I guess that means another project is in order...

2 comments:

  1. I know this if off topic but I'm looking into starting my own weblog and was curious what all is required to get set up? I'm assuming having a blog like yours would cost a pretty penny?
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    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for stopping by. Actually no, my blog and all you see on it was at no cost to me, though it flatters me that you thought it looked expensive. :) You can find some great sites out there like Shabbyblogs.com, that have free backgrounds, banners and bobbles that you can use on your blog. I build, customize and design my stuff by going to a free online editing site called fotoflexer.com. That is how I added the text to my banner as well as created my blog buttons and little greeting box with my picture in it. It took me a lot of time and a lot of research and tinkering to get what I have- but I didn't know a thing about blogging before I started, so you can sure do it too! I have been thinking of doing some posts for beginner bloggers about how I got started, maybe now would be a good time to get them written and posted, eh?
      ~Des~

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