Arizona summers get very hot. Like you are standing outside for a few minutes and you can feel the sun just beating down on you. So my go to summer outfit is usually a dress or skirt. Jeans are definitely out of the question and shorts are okay but the weather just calls for dresses. And recently, I have more of a need for midi dresses because let’s face it, with kids and car seats there is a lot of bending over and shorter dresses don’t work well with that. I am always drawn to a flowy dress, or flowy skirt with a cute tee. Nothing too tight or form fitting for me, because again, it’s hot and I’m moving around quite a bit with kids and such.
I found this great tutorial through Pinterest on how to make a tiered maxi dress, just what I was looking for. Here is the pattern and tutorial! And even better, the blog post gives you the option to draft your own pattern or purchase hers. Since I have never drafted my own pattern before I decided to go that route. There is also a YouTube tutorial you can follow, that does not include how to make your own pattern but the blog post explains that part very well. I would say that I was very pleased with the first dress! I made it from left over fabric that I have used for baby blankets; it was this very soft double guaze in shades of pink and is a great summer dress! Once I finished that dress I knew that I would want to make more.
I don’t always have tons of time to make things for myself but my goal was that during the summer I’d spend some time to make another. I found some pretty green fabric with large off white flowers on it and thought that would be pretty for summer and even leading into fall. It took me a while but I finally got to starting my second dress. The only thing I wanted to change about the first dress was the bodice, it was just a bit too tight and short. So when cutting the new bodice I added an inch to the length and an inch to the width. The length ended up being okay however the width was too much. Since the seams for each section are gathered, the bodice ended up looking boxy compared to that first gathered section. I added darts (something she walks you through in the tutorial, and I must say, her instructions are wonderful. I’ve never sewn darts before and they turned out great). But it still didn’t fit quite right. I kept trying to “fix” the bodice but was not satisfied. I really wanted to wear the dress because I was excited about what I had made, but would put it on and see the imperfections. Even though others told me they liked it, I found that I wasn’t wearing it much.
One night about a week ago it hit me, I could cut the bodice off and turn it into a skirt! I already had elastic and wouldn’t need to make any adjustments because when you are making an elastic skirt waistband, you want it to be bigger than your actual waist to give it a gathered look. I was so relieved to have something I could be excited wear and that I made! I wore the skirt twice in the week and a half since I have made it. I do plan to still make another dress because I still love them. And over the years I have learned that this is the creative process sometimes. You will run into roadblocks sometimes, or something in your project won’t go right. It is easy to get overwhelmed and want to take a step back. Often times I do take a step back.I have found that when I decided to pick it up again, I will gain momentum and then really get into a good rhythm to finish the project. If you are in the middle of something and it’s not going as planned, my hope would be that you can take a moment to evaluate, pray, and take a breath. Then when you’re ready, challenge yourself to pick it back up and finish it.
Blessings,
Ellen
