She's Home!

After a very fun filled week at camp involving a hot air balloon ride and a zipline, my little sister is home! It was a rather quiet week around here without her, it's good to have her back!

Quiet at home however does not mean it was a slow week, not at all. As I've done previous years, I had great plans to sew my sister a couple dresses while she was away. The week sped by however, filled by work and other such things, and by yesterday evening I still hadn't made her a dress. Oh well, I thought, she really doesn't need anymore dresses, but. . . she has outgrown a few sundresses and I really wanted to make her a new dress. Thus, I pulled out a pattern I bought over a year ago and some plaid cotton gauze that I've had in my stash for a year or two now and cut that dress out.

So, the dress got cut out last night and this morning I set to sewing it together. It was a very simple pattern so I figured I might just be able to get the dress done before we left to pick my sister up from camp. Well, the dress was almost done when we left, but not quite. I'd decided to add a flounce to the bottom of the dress as it looked a little short in the picture and I thought a flounce would really add to the overall design. I still needed to sew said flounce on. Also, the back of the dress still needed to be shirred. (Well, the pattern said to sew elastic to the back of the dress, but shirring with elastic thread is so much easier and the finished product so much nicer). Thus, the dress got finished after my sister got home, but she was still thrilled with it!

While simple this dress is, plain it is not. I love the tucks and decorative button placket on the front. I used mismatched pink and purple buttons from my stash and outlined the placket in yellow rickrack. The pleated shoulder straps though might just be my favorite detail.

Thanks to the loose cut and the elasticized back this dress required no functioning buttons or zipper, score!

My sister loves how light the fabric is, making this dress cool and comfortable. She's been admiring this fabric in my stash for a while now so she was super excited when she discovered I'd turned it into a dress for her!

It's good to have her home again! When we went to pick her up she and her friend were wearing their Thing 1 and 2 dresses, just for fun. I was happy to see Thing 1's dress fit and that both girls enjoyed the week at camp!