Operation New Dress Success!

Guess what!!! I did it!!! I am so happy to say that I have successfully completed "Operation New Dress (revisited)!  I put the finishing touches on this afternoon (finishing touches being buttons - everything else was already done).

Love this print and look what arrived in the post last week?!?!
My new Lottas!!! Yippee!!

I ended up choosing the Sew Over It's Doris Dress.  I love the easy feel of it.  Because there's more ease in the silhouette there was a lot less fitting to worry about in the bodice.  I did sew up a muslin because I wasn't sure and didn't want to waste any of my good fabric by messing up, but I didn't make any changes to it other than to add an inch to the bodice and take an inch off of the hem of skirt to compensate. Otherwise this baby fits right out of the envelope (or off the printer as is the case).

The fabric is an easy care, easy wear rayon from Fabricland in the city and after sewing Doris and wearing it I want to make a closet full of rayon dresses.  It was beautiful to work with! I was a wee bit nervous about how I would like the print because it does veer off quite a bit from my usual florals that I gravitate towards, but I really like it quite a bit!  Thanks Agnes!! (she's my go to gal at Fabricland.  She never leads me astray on fabric choices!).

Doris is a fairly straight forward sew and even more straight forward because I opted to leave the concealed side zip out.  I know!  I live on the edge...

I did test it out first of course by basting the side seam and then pinning the front bodice closed and it was easy enough to get on an off  unpinned so whoot, whoot!!!  No concealed  zip for me!  It's an upside of having a less than huge bust/waist ratio. Also an upside of me not liking my clothes to be super fitted as a general rule. Anyways.  I was pretty pleased to skip that step even though it meant I couldn't skip the button holes because they needed to be functioning now.  Lesser of two evils and all - especially given my buttonhole function on my old new to me Pfaff works a treat.

Doris Dress, Vianne Cardi and Low Braid Lottas 

I am so thrilled with this dress and have already started envisioning another.  I have a few other projects I want to do first but rest assured another Doris dress will be appearing here sooner or later!

And would you look at that!  N's pop up restaurant is still three days away and my new dress is DONE!!!

 I am just this happy about my new dress!
(apparently my excitement causes me to take weird angled selfies!)

So. About That Plan...

This may well be my new favourite outfit for spring!!

Remember how the other day I had a plan?  One month.  One dress.  All I had to do was decide which one?

Well it kind of fell by the wayside.  It wasn't my fault entirely.  It was that I was let loose with some money in my pocket and a fabric store in my sights.  I was still on the straight and narrow of the "Operation New Dress (revisited)" plan at the fabric store for the first bit of my peruse around.  But then I spied a sweet red floral print.  Better yet, the red floral print also had white polka dots.  And there went the plan.  Because that seemingly sweet innocent floral/polka dot print was actually screaming quite loudly that it absolutely NEEDED to become a Sew Over It Susie.

Plans to make a dress. Cuts out a blouse...
(And yes.  That is a can of tuna and a can of black olives doing double duty as pattern weights)

You know how it happens.  You plan to make a dress and instead start a blouse.  Oh the fickle seamstress I am.   But I loved this print and it's lightweight and soft and was a remarkable $3.99/metre.  You can see how I couldn't say no, right?

Like my first Susie, I really adore this one!  I had cut it out earlier in the week and then unfortunately never got a chance to start sewing right away.  It ended up that I actually sewed it up after the little boys went to bed on Thursday evening.  (And Baby Boy didn't go to sleep until about 9:45, darn his little hide!).  Now that I've got the fit down from doing the work prior to my first Susie, it was so quick to put together. For reference, I was hanging my new blouse in the closet and climbing into bed by 11:30pm. So not bad for sewing time!

A Susie Selfie! I ADORE this blouse!!!

I was so glad I stayed up a bit later Thursday night so I could wear my new blouse out for my date with my mama and my daughter on Friday.  Good visit, good food and a comfy blouse.  What more could a girl ask for?

So now that I've got Susie sewing out of my system I will return to my previously scheduled new dress sewing... Honestly.  I will.  Really...