One Pattern; Three Dresses (so far)

Last year, Earthgirl wanted a short dress she could wear over leggings.  We found Simplicity 3546, and made this dress. 

March 2009

I learned a few lessons about the pattern from the first version.  Earthgirl is slender, so I cut the pattern about a size 8-10 length with size 6-7 width.  Even so, the dress is plenty wide, and the neckline is too low and wide.  She must always wear a little cami under the mini-dress.  Nevertheless, we love it.  In fact, some of this fabric made it's way into her lapquilt stack. 

Then we made a sleeveless version for Easter/Piano Recital.  (It looks even better ironed. )

April 2009

This time we pulled the dress in even a little slimmer, and cut the neck higher. I also decided to line the whole dress, preventing a whole year of sighs and whines about wearing a slip.   One problem I encountered was that making the neckline that small, with no opening, makes for a tight fit pulling the dress over her head.  If I make this neckline again, I'll make a little slit in back to be fastened with a loop and button. 

The other tricky part of using this fabric is placing the flowers nicely.  The dress just looks better with a centered flower on front bodice.  The back bodice does not look as nice.  I'm glad I had cut it out first and noticed that fact.  A year later, this dress still fits. 

This year, I made the slit-neck version for Cousin's wedding/Easter/Piano Recital/maybe other Cousin's wedding, too (we are experiencing a rash of Earthgirl's grown-up cousins getting married.  We love it!)

Easter 2010

If Earthgirl had a hat like her friend, she wouldn't squint :)

Earthgirl wanted non-gathered cap sleeves for this one, so I folded up the long-sleeve pattern piece.  After fiddling with last year's big flowers, I did not want that kind of situation again, but it turned out this fabric presented the same problem - there are some big flowers on it that can look kind of funny if placed badly on the front bodice.  I fiddled and wiggled pattern pieces to get the top bodice pieces to have mostly the smaller motifs.

I still want to make the version with longer ruffle-edge sleeves, maybe in winter colors next fall.  This has been a fun pattern.  It really gets the creative juices flowing for us.  We are not the only ones - check out what Creative Chicks did with this pattern.