The Summer Dress

And today I have a wholly seasonally inappropriate blog post to share. There's currently snow on the ground for crying out loud! Yet, yesterday morning, my sister came downstairs wearing this dress.

(And no, none of these pictures were taken yesterday, they were all taken back when it was warm, and green, outside.)

I teased her that she was dressed for the wrong season. She just grinned and informed me the dress makes an excellent nightgown. Well, ok then. This dress can win the comfy award.

Anyway, I made this dress for my sister back in June or July. She was in need of a coupleof new summer dresses, having outgrown the majority of her wardrobe, and I didn't have time to make her the usual, somewhat elaborate, woven sundresses I've made her in years past. Quick and easy it would have to be. Something made with knit fabric that wouldn't require any closures or a million seams.

Earlier in the summer, or sometime in the spring, my mom ordered a selection of jersey knits from Fashion Fabrics Club to be turned into clothes for my sister. So I started this dress by choosing a fabric from that trove.

For the quick and easy summer dress I chose this white jersey, covered in red, grey, and lime green doodled flowers. This fabric was one of my sister's particular favorites from the order. It was slightly see-through, so I also picked a lining fabric from my stash - a red rayon jersey I'd picked up from Walmart at some point in time.

Fabric picked, it was time to figure out the pattern. I chose to use the Agnes Dress pattern by Halla Patterns - if you join the Halla Patterns Facebook Group there's a code to download the pattern for free!

To take full advantage of the fabrics I was using, I made a couple slight changes to the pattern. Since I needed to line the dress anyway for opacity's sake, I opted to make the red lining layer longer than the patterned outer layer for a fun layered look.

And, well since I had to line it anyway, I opted to finish the neckline and arm holes by sewing the outer and lining layers together via the "burrito method", and forgo the neck and arm bands the pattern was supposed to be finished with.

This worked out pretty well, but I really should have added extra seam allowance to the neckline and armholes as without the extra height, bands would have added, they wound up lower than prefered. But oh well, the dress is still quite wearable.

And wear it my sister has done! The dress got worn throughout the summer, a now it apparently works as a nightgown.

That said, no sooner did my sister inform me the dress made a good nightgown, then she was putting on her coat and boots, heading outside to feed hay to the goats.

So, apparently, with the proper layers, this dress works for year-round wear. Who would have thought?