Simplicity 3835, second try

full length shot, including my not-photo-ready toes

and, a bit closer, so your eyes can really cross at the riot of different colors and patterns in this picture.

I'm sorry about that photo background. Squint your eyes and envision me superimposed on a pristine, softly lit white wall next to a distressed-but-charming yellow demilune table, atop which is a delicate bird's nest, including two blue spotted eggs. Isn't that stunning?

front

back

Yay! It worked. Eventually. With adjustments. But I can actually wear this out and about and feel great in it. I made myself a dress, people! (Andy Williams singing "The Impossible Dream" in background). The fabric is from Amy Butler's Lotus collection, which I adored. Perfect for spring.

After much internal debate, I chose to cut out the size 14 and take it in rather than try to adjust the fit of the size 12. And it was too big. Quite a bit too big, actually. In hindsight what I should have done was kept the size 12, widened the shoulders a tad and shortened the waist (which would have fixed the snugness in the hips). Why doesn't hindsight show up early for once? Stupid hindsight.

So it took a bit of adjusting. I took it in on the sides quite a bit, and it was still kind of billowy looking across the front. After some more pondering I improvised a 2 inch wide self-belt across the front that is sewn into the side seams. I like how it gives some definition to my waist and takes in some of the extra fabric.

Since it was a size up, I went ahead and sewed the sleeves with the full seam allowance and they are not too snug. It is just the right amount of tightness.

I got real ambitious this time and decided to add a lining, just in the main body and not the sleeves. Which was actually not difficult at all! And it feels so great on. Very worth the trouble.

You can see the unfortunate pattern clash on the back center seam of the dress, where it is almost-matched-but-not-quite so it looks like a mistake. Sigh. I only had 2 yards of fabric so I was really houdini-ing it to make the dress, and there was no way I could have attempted to pattern match. This particular arrangement was just the dumb luck of the draw when I cut it out. I'm going to try not to let it bother me.

And here again is the duvet cover trial run, now transformed into a tunic with pockets:


I left the sleeves alone because in the end I was too lazy to cuff them, but I think it works since I used a little of that fabric for the top of the pockets. I made my own larger pockets because I thought the ones in the pattern were kind of shrimpy. And I like flaps like hers. With buttons.


It is still kind of snug around the hips, especially since now I need to wear pants with it, but I'll deal with that. I am actually now noticing in the top picture that one paisley bloom thingy right there in the front is so much lighter than the rest. Hmmm. Weird. I really like this blue, and I still have a bunch of this fabric left over, so I might even attempt this one again.

I will definitely be making more of this pattern, in all the variations. It is pretty simple to sew, and now that I have most of the kinks worked out, I can count on them coming out at the least wearable, and maybe fabulous.