A Winter Wear Designs Journey to Nantucket Style

 When the Winter Wear Designs Summer Style Blog Tour was announced, I was definitely eager to hop on board and participate! I've gone into how ready I was to sew some every day stuff after the wedding right? Right. You've heard it. And there's nothing like a WWD blog tour to add fun new garments to my wardrobe! The garments I've made for previous blog tours seriously get worn all the time. I love these excuses to make new outfits for myself and I have a lot of fun playing with the different WWD Patterns!

So, what would I make for this blog tour? Susanne gave us a list of summer style ideas to get started with. Among them were options such as "boho", "date night", and "Nantucket". My mind ran right to the "boho" idea because, ruffles, and skipped right over the "Nantucket" theme because I've never been to New England, let alone a New England beach, so what do I know about Nantucket?

My subconscious, however, apparently registered this "Nantucket" idea. As I was going through my fabric stash to find something for my "boho" plans, I came across a blue and white striped rayon challis, picked up from the pre-cut bin at Wal-Mart last summer. It pretty much screamed "Nantucket" at me, so I decided I needed to give this theme a try!

When I bought this fabric I'd planned on turning it into a loose, flowing, maxi dress. Thus, I started brainstorming which WWD pattern could be easily hacked into such a thing. Then I hit the pause button. I wasn't sure if the maxi dress idea fit the "Nantucket" idea. I did a quick Pinterest search of "Nantucket Style". I saw a couple striped maxi dresses. Perfect! The plan was back on!

After thinking through the style of dress I wanted, I chose the Journey Dress pattern as my starting point.

I began by tracing off the yoke pattern pieces and re-drawing the neckline to make it lower and wider.

Then I took the bodice front pattern piece, eliminated most of the waist shaping to get the loose flowing look I was going for, and lengthened it to be below knee length.

I eliminated the waist shaping on the back bodice piece too, but I didn't lengthen it. 

Instead I cut a wide ruffle to sew onto the bottom of the back bodice to make it the same length as the front bodice.

Finally, I cut a nice wide ruffle to go all around the bottom of the dress.

Oh, and some patch pockets.

Because pockets are mandatory. 

And with that, I had my Nantucket-inspired, loose, flowing, ruffly, striped, maxi dress.

It is comfortable!

And cute!

I've worn it for church, and just hanging out at home sewing, or running errands.

I have not worn it to work however. The combination of white stripes and young children sounds risky.

This is more of a weekend dress for me.

That's it! If you'd like to see more Summer style inspiration using Winter Wear Designs patterns, check out the rest of the blog tour!

 Don't miss out on any of the stops along the tour!!!

7/12

Patricia of Sew Far North

7/13

Alyssa of The Sewing Goat Herd

Suzanne of WWD

7/14

Rachel Reece of Violets and Jewels

Ilse of Sew Sew Ilse

7/15

Kristen Guest Posting at WWD

Alyssa of The Sewing Goat Herd

7/16

Laurie of The Bear and the Pea Atelier

Patricia of Sew Far North