Summertime Sally

The problem I have with summer is that it brings out the lazy in me.  It's hot.  We don't have central air conditioning, so the apartment is never quite cool enough.  I end up sitting on the couch fuffing around on the internet or reading a book.  My sewing suffers immensely during the hottest months.  A couple of weeks ago, I got inspired to make a summer dress.  I wavered for two or three days on what pattern to make.  I even traced a Burda pattern, but when I went to cut it- I just couldn't imagine it.  I finally settled on a pattern I already cut out- the Sally Shirtdress.

For this version I used a rayon/vicose I picked up in Sao Paulo.  It was slightly sheer, so I underlined it with the cotton/silk batiste that I bought last month.  As you can tell it doesn't look a whole lot like the Sally Shirtdress.  After I sewed the collar and the sleeves, I tried it on.  The sleeves had zero ease built into them, so they were way too tight.  The collar didn't stay up.  It looked terrible.  Here is what it looked like with the collar (but without the sleeves):

I hated that the underlining showed.  So I picked up my seam ripper and unpicked the sleeves and collar.  Then I hung it up on the dressform and let it sit for a couple of days.  While it was sitting, I finished another pair of pants that I had set aside earlier as I wasn't happy with either.

I am still not sure about them, they're comfy and fit well in the back, but they look a little frumpy.  Anyway, back to the Sally Shirtdress.  I left off the collar, finished it with bias binding, but needed a new sleeve.  Something didn't take up too much fabric because I only had about a quarter yard left.  I flipped through my patterns and settled on the sleeves from Simplicity 1872 by Cynthia Rowley. 

The other change I made, was moving around pleats.  Instead of the four inch pleats (two inches above the waist and two inches below), I did pleats that were only a inch long.  This created the blousing effect I was after. There are six pleats in the back, but only four in the front.  Anyway, that is about all I have to say about this dress.  I wore it twice this weekend, and it was nice and cool each time.  I will say that after almost a year of being out of Brazil, it took me a little bit of getting use to wearing such a vibrant dress.  Anyway, I have almost finished a Gabriola skirt, so I better get on with it, so I can do one more post before I go on vacation.  Until next time, happy sewing!