Its not the first time summer time has rolled around and I've gone on a "pants strike" and worn skirts and dresses, but I think it likely is the first time I've made a point to do so.
The Stitch Sisters, Rachel and Nikki, set forth the challenge this year on Instagram to wear 30 Days of Dresses and I thought what the heck, I might as well! I've still not bothered to count how many dresses actually hang in my closet, but there are quite a few. (definitely not 30... at least I'm fairly certain there's not 30 in there...).
I was going to try and see how far I could go into the month without repeating a dress, but then some dresses I just reach for because they're the best for the weather or more importantly my mood. So I'm not going to fuss about repeats. Full disclosure time : 1) I've not worn a dress every day so far. One day I wore my
Samara Pants. But they are darn close to skirt like so I decided they could count anyways. LOL 2) I sometimes haven't worn a dress for the whole day. Like the day it was so windy I thought it best in the name of public decency to change into shorts to take the boys football practice rather than risk an epic and embarrassing wardrobe malfunction. Or the morning I walked in the parade with the football team and then came home to mow the lawn. I didn't put a dress on until much later in the day after parading and yard work and swimming had been done.
Of course I've made a couple of dresses in the last two weeks, because... well, because I can. So why not? I had both the patterns and the fabric in my stash already so why not? #sewyourstash for the win!!!
I'll tell you about them first and then I'll leave you with some photos of my first half of 30 days of dresses.
First up was a mash up of the Patterns for Pirates
Sweetheart and
Sunshine patterns. I absolutely love my P4P Sunshine, but sometimes the crossover neckline and maxi skirt feel a bit fancy for daily wear (although I did choose to swan around in my maxi on the 5th for my birthday!). To make my dress a bit more or a day wear feel, I shortened the Sunshine skirt to just below the knee and combined it with the bodice of the Sweetheart. Then I added some bands to finish the neckline and armholes and boom. New favourite, throw it on whenever kind of dress! The fabric is a double brushed poly from
Blended Threads in Saskatchewan that I purchased at some point last year.
My second dress was for the #sewcialistminichallenge over on Instagram. I spun the wheel over on the
Sewcialists blog to see what colour I had to sew and got "coral". Perfect luck! I've had this coral coloured Liverpool fabric sitting in my stash for a little over a year and I've been meaning to make some more Halla Pattern Agnes dresses after living in the two I made all last summer so choosing a pattern was easy peasy!
Agnes sews up ridiculously quickly so I started this the other day then quickly finished it up yesterday in time for the deadline for the five day challenge. I had to get a bit fancy with cutting it out - I seamed the center back and cut the front flat rather than on the fold to make sure I could make use of my less than 1 1/2 yards of Liverpool. It's a smidge shorter than I'd prefer due to fabric constraints, so I did I tiny rolled hem on my serger to finish it off without losing
any length. All I was left with was a tiny pile of scraps. SCORE on the stash busting of this project!
And before I go here's July 1st through 7th
(Clockwise from the top left hand corner not necessarily in order worn - I've included links to the patterns)
And July 8th - 14th
(Again clockwise from the top left hand corner not necessarily in order worn - with links to the patterns)
And the halfway point today! July 15th
So there it is - that's the first half of the month done. No guarantees I'll do the next fifteen days in dresses, but I'm going to give it a shot anyway! I'll check in with you again at the end to let you know how it went and if I find time to sew up a few other dresses that I've got fabric and patterns at the ready for...
