End of Summer Dress

The coral rose and passion vine tangle up and cover this bench trellis. It’s a pretty spot to sit—or hang a dress.

Have you ever had a project that made you wonder if you would ever finish it?  That’s the story for this summer dress that I started in June.  Finally today,  Sept. 2, it is ready to wear.

Yes, it’s a little late for summer, but in central Florida, summer lasts until late Oct.   There are still plenty of 90 degree days ahead for Laurel, my 9 year old granddaughter, to wear this cotton sundress.  Add  to that the fact that it is a little big, so she will be cool and cute next summer.

The pattern is Summer Separates from the Sew Beautiful collection.

This is a great pattern, one I’ve made before with Swiss pique and Liberty of London tanna lawn.  This second version was inspired by the fabulous Easter sundresses Judy Day made for her granddaughters.  Take a look at them.  I loved that fabric and bought some for Laurel.    The bodice is Swiss pique and the trims are  gingham and a quilting cotton, all from my stash.

The monogram is from Embroidery Art’s Arabesque Monogram Set 8 Royal Monogram Set.

I added hot pink topstitching to the green gingham using the triple straight stitch and my edgestitch foot.

I think the contrasting hem really finishes this dress nicely.

I simplified the construction of the contrasting hem like this.

1. Folded contrasting hem and folded trim strip are stitched to wrong side of skirt.

2. Seam is pressed flat.

3.  Narrow strip is pressed toward skirt covering the seam and then straight stitched in place. Black thread is used on this sample for visibility, but hot pink thread was used on the dress skirt.

So why did it take me almost 3 months to finish this dress?  First, I prewashed the fabric in my relatively new, wonderful washing machine.  When I took it out, it was chewed up for about 12″ along the center fold and then again for 6-8″ a few inches in from the selvage.  I can’t imagine what happened, as there was nothing in the tub but 4 yds. fabric.

Then I realized that I could not use the pattern I had planned for this and started looking for Summer Separates.  Apparently it was separated from the pattern box where it belonged and it took more than a week of my scarce free time to locate it.

Laying out the pattern pieces took a lot of creative rearranging and pattern modification to squeeze out the skirt.  In fact, the back skirt is 4″ narrower than called for.

And then there is life in general, all good but making it hard to fit sewing into the agenda.

But now it’s done and I look forward to seeing Laurel wear it during our hot Florida fall.

So what are you all sewing?

P.S.  This dress, the bodice especially, needed a good press before being photographed.  But the thunder was rolling and time was running out to get the pictures before the rain came.