Ikat Accordion Pleat Dress

On July 4th I went thrift shopping with a friend and found this awesome accordion pleated skirt originally from The Gap [1]. After a few days, though, I decided that this cotton, silk blend skirt was not for me and it ended up as sewing scraps.

                                                                               

Originally I was intending to use the Lisianthus Dress pattern by Melody Valerie Couture but it took a life of its own when I encountered issues due to my inexperience working with this type of fabric. But in the end I won.

 

  

Side detail

All in all, this dress made a great learning experience for me. There are some things I now know to look out for with fabrics that are light and fray very easily.

               

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Foot Notes

[1] I forgot to photograph the skirt before I took it apart but was able to find a picture of it through the magic of Google:

Image soure

Blue Birds in Flight Dress

Hello, hello! Unfortunately, I will be taking a break from sewing for a while. I will not have a a sewing machine at my disposal for a while but before that happens here is my latest dress design. The design is based off of a dress I took apart for the fabric.  It features 100% cotton fabric, a smocked back, sweetheart neckline, and adjustable straps.

I found the original dress at Kohl's and fell in love with the fabric. While creating the pattern for the smaller dress, I referenced American Girl's Molly's Birthday dress to figure out the paneling on the bodice, the hair ribbon was borrowed from Samantha's Cranberry Holiday dress, and the necklace and boots came from Saige's Sparkle dress. 

SO Chambray Sleeveless Dress