Dress for a picnic in the French countryside...

I'm just about 1 year from my first sewing project, so still a beginner, but not a complete newbie. Typically I buy fairly inexpensive fabric under the assumption that most of my projects could become an unmitigated disaster at any point in the process -- too big, too small, cut out wrong, run out of fabric, screw up the directions... You name it, I'm afraid of it.


I also usually buy fabric from Joanns since they're pretty much the only game in town where I live, and I'm wary of buying fabric online when I can't feel it. I'm still trying to become familiar with what all of the fabric types out there are and how they match up with the instructions on my patterns -- challis, chambray, double georgette (is there a single georgette?), shantung, pique, and the list goes on. The one thing I do know for sure: the majority of patterns are "Unsuitable for diagonals".

This fabric -- purchased at Mill End on a visit to Portland -- was more expensive than anything I've tried to use before, and I liked it so much I was terrified of making something unwearable out of it. I held onto for almost a year before I felt confident enough in my skills to use it, and even then I did something I haven't done before -- make a muslin -- to make sure I would be happy with the pattern and fit before cutting into my precious fabric.

This is the pattern I settled on, with the intention of using view A. It seemed to fit all my criteria:

• Sundress with enough coverage I could wear a regular bra and not have the straps show
• Pockets! I love a dress with pockets!
• And, most importantly, designed for a border print fabric

So, I set out to make a muslin of it. However, not too far into assembling the bodice, I decided it wasn't right for what I wanted:

I thought it looked too blah, too plain, and a little too covered up. Not that I wanted anything too revealing, but I did want it to look more "weekend picnic" and less "going to church". Looking back on it, maybe it just seemed so plain because muslin is so plain and it might have been better in my colorful fabric.

I took a second look at view C in this pattern. On it's own, it only meets 1 of my criteria (pockets!), but it looked like even with my limited skills could be altered to meet my other desires... I could widen those straps to cover bra straps and instead of using contrast fabric, I could use the border on my fabric for the accents on the dress. Hmm, promising...

I made a muslin of the new bodice since it was so different, and glad I did since it took some practice for me to be able to attach the pieces of the bodice to each other smoothly.

Anyway, long story short and a few more modifications later, here's the finished product, as photographed by my very talented friend Heather: