My latest sundress

Well, it's been a late summer coming to the Pacific Northwest, but I have been anticipating it by trying my hand at making ("designing", if you could call it that) some sundresses. I started by making a couple of very simple shift dresses, which are comfy and cool to wear, but pretty shapeless and not the most-figure flattering items in my closet.

So, I decided to combine the simple-to-make top of the shift dress but combine it with a fitted waist and skirt with pleats. With the skirt of the dress loosely based on Simplicity 2886 , a pattern I love for its pocket placement, I made and remade this dress from a fun border print fabric until it fit. Making it more fitted than the simple shift dresses also makes the construction more complicated -- more pieces to cut and sew together, zipper required to get it on and off -- but I've decided it's totally worth it because I feel better wearing it. Here are some pictures I snapped:




















And, here I am playing around with Zoey and in Photoshop: