Too Many Choices

I looked it up. I cut this dress out on February 9. I thought it had been a month or so earlier. I'm pleased to discover it didn't take quite as long as I'd thought!

Six and a half weeks later, I wore this dress for the first time. I absolutely love it. And I've got a sort of companion dress to go with it, to hopefully prevent this one from becoming too worn out too quickly and to provide a tiny bit of variety for my Sunday school class so they aren't left wondering if I own only one dress. :)

I bought four yards of Kaffe Fassett Collective Blue Tropical Water Lillies back in September of 2023. I didn't even wait for it to go on sale. I loved it so much, I wanted a dress, a whole dress, I could wear to work. (choke, choke, but that's a blog post for another day) And that was my original intention. When I cut out the dress parts (mistakenly believing I could wear the finished dress to church that very day), I cut all six major pieces from my Kaffe yardage. I cut pockets and linings from solid leftovers that sort of harmonize.

Caregiver duties ensued, and no sewing got done that day. Or the next 14-15 days, for that matter. Good thing, too. By the time I finally did sit down to the sewing machine, I'd decided to split the pattern pieces into two different dresses. I'd use one stash solid for the bodice of the first dress, and another stash solid for the skirt for the second.

If I'd had more than one yard of my hyacinth Grunge, I'd have used it for both dresses. The two fabrics go together so beautifully! Perhaps it's good I didn't have enough of any stash solid to cut a matching skirt and a bodice. The two dresses would have been so similar, it might look like I was wearing the same dress every Sunday.

When I finally sat down to sew the last full week of March, I'd decided to cut out one of the leftover flowers to create an appliqué for the Grunge front bodice. I remember thinking at the time the flowers were dahlias. That was meaningful for me because I'd decided I'm not going to invest in dahlias for my garden this year. They are too disappointing at my altitude and in my climate. Having a dahlia dress sort of makes up for the garden sacrifice. Now I find out the "dahlias" are instead water lilies...

I wished I'd had enough hyacinth Grunge for the sleeves. But flowery sleeves will do.

Actual combined sewing time for the first dress was less than three hours, with the appliqué taking up the lion's share of that time. The rest of the dress was so darned fast, I feel ashamed it took me so long to finish it. This pattern is easily a one-sitting project. Unless the seamstress is loaded up with a plethora of duties that take priority...

When I first cut the dress fabric, I modified the bodice from empire to princess cut, adding about four inches in length. I forgot to adjust the skirt and wound up slicing off three inches along the bottom once the dress was assembled.

When I first decided to make two dresses instead of one, I wanted them to be different enough that they didn't look like twins. Ultimately, I didn't have enough of any of my Grunge stash for a skirt, much less sleeves, and I didn't want to do floral sleeves on both dresses. I had plenty of denim-look fabrics, and plenty of yardage to boot. I decided to go sleeveless on the second dress.

While cutting out the skirt for the second dress, I suddenly became bored with way too much solid. I wondered what the dress might look like if I stuck a vertical stripe in the front of the skirt...

And then I got REALLY crazy. What if I did some quilt blocks in a stripe down the front of the skirt using leftovers of both fabrics... If I don't like the stripe, I can always make a quilt...

So maybe this second dress will get finished in the next two months, or maybe a bunch of quilt blocks will be crafted... Or both... :)

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