April Sewing

I actually got a little bit of time to sew and 

The dress I ended up sewing and what I got the fabric for are two entirely different outfits. LOL

I had initially been planning to make the Easter Dress that was given free to my doll sewing group for the March sew-along and that is what I had in mind when I got the fabrics. However, the day I had time to cut out the fabric fell during the week that my printer decided it was no longer going to function at all. So I went through my collection of patterns and found a dress pattern that I thought would look cute. I got as far as cutting the fabric for the dress cut out and then real life got in the way once again and the pieces laid on my table waiting for me to get back to it. This all happened in mid March.

Fast forward to this month when I finally had time to sew! The dress pattern that I cut out called for rickrack which I didn't have and there was no way I was going to put off sewing this any longer. I decided to cut strips of some floral fabric I had purchased a while ago, fold it in half and add in place of the rick rack. Kind of like I might add a band onto the border of a quilt. I like how it looks a lot better than rick rack, which I have never really been a fan of anyway.

For the dress I used Simplicity 1443 but I left off the collar. I had cut out the collar but when I got to the point of adding it I just wasn't liking it at all. Since the bodice is completely lined it wasn't really an issue to leave it off and I think it improves the dress.

I did have a bit of a matching up issue on the skirt back seam, I will probably go back and fix that later but for today it is staying just like it is.

When I got the dress finished I decided I wanted to use more of the floral fabric somewhere and since the dress is sleeveless and we are in Oregon (where the weather is known for being a bit fickle) so I decided that Allison should probably have a light jacket. I looked through my patterns again and found this pattern (Simplicity 3547) for a little jacket/bolero/ shrug/ whatever you want to call it. I love how it looks and it ties the outfit together nicely.

I had planned to make shoes but none of my patterns were what I wanted and I just didn't feel like buying a new pattern today. I dug through my shoe collection and found these cute little ones I got last year at the craft store. I do love these and they go

with almost any spring/summer outfit.

I did decide to make a quick necklace to go with the dress, it is really simple but I hope it adds just the right touch to finish the outfit and dress it up a bit.