Made by a Fabricista: Flirty Floral Denim Dress

Can you believe how fast summer is flying by? It's almost Labor Day! So despite the fact that it has been insanely hot here in the southeast and will likely stay that way weeks after the "unofficial end of summer" it's almost time for me to start sewing for fall.

On to the dress itself...the dress came together easily thanks to clear instructions. My least favorite part was creating the neck and sleeve ruffle. But that is to be expected as I hate gathering as a general rule. Thankfully, there is not much fabric to gather here so it wasn't that bad. Everything else was a breeze.

I graded from a size 16 at the neck and shoulders to an 18 from the bust to hip. My bust was closer to the 16 measurements, but my biceps tend to need a tad more room in the sleeve so I went with size 18 armhole. In the end, the dress was a tad to boxy in the middle for me. My first thought was to add a fish-eye dart to each back piece, but I have yet to draft those. I ended up simply taking in the sides grading from almost nothing at the underarm to about 3/4" to at the waist back out to the hip. I am happy with the fit, but I will be looking for information on how to draft my own fish-eye darts for future projects.

I was a tad concerned about the height of the neck ruffle, but it didn't bother me while shooting the photos even though I'm not a huge fan of anything around my neck. The dress calls for an invisible zipper, but depending on the fabric used I think an exposed decorative zipper would work great.

Though a little too hot to wear now, I'll be wearing this dress come fall and even into earlier winter over tights. Have you started your fall sewing yet?

I won't be posting during the Fabricista Challenge, but you can keep up with my lastest projects on my blog, TipStitched.

See you in October!!!