I told you a couple of weeks ago that I was sewing again, and showed you some of the fabric I had cut out. There was this rayon print:
I cut out the short version of Vogue 8970.

Here’s my lovely assistant Nelly, showing off the result

It fits perfectly! I’m so happy with this dress. The fabric is a little sheer, so I’m going to cut out an underdress in black cotton voile. The skirt has a nice flare, which is tough to see since Nelly needs to work on her modelling skills.

My one trick was to baste the tucks and darts initially. I waited until I could try on the dress to check them, then adjusted them a bit before sewing them in. I decided to use black thread and flat-fell the seams because I thought it would look good – it does, but because the seams are curvy, it took longer than expected to get them sewn. The only thing was that I didn’t check the length before I cut – I always have to shorten dresses and never thought about checking it – and it’s a bit shorter than I’d like.

This may be my new go-to summer dress pattern. (For a long time, it was Vogue 1149.) I immediately cut out two more dresses from this pattern, both in the longer length. I finished the seam allowances differently on the one in the black rayon print. That extra 4″ of length is just perfect—here’s the second dress on lovely Nelly:

I’ve already worn this one a few times.

I’ve cut out a third version of this dress from a wonderful plum cotton print from the Victoria & Albert collection. I’ve been waiting for just the right pattern for it. Here it is – most of the birds are white but some are taupe:

They had rayon dress weights on sale this past month, so I bought another crinkle rayon and will cut a fourth version of this dress.

A lot of dresses? Yes, but I love wearing dresses in the summertime. I’ll get a lot of wear out of these. I’ll wear this black one with a pullover sweater and boots in the fall, too.

The green dress also has mother-of-pearl buttons that I bought as an experiment. I was ordering charms for bookmarks from an online portal and saw the buttons—the bag of 100 buttons was less than $4, so I thought it worth a try. I love mother-of-pearl buttons and pay about $3 for a card of 3 buttons at the fabric store here. I was skeptical that the deal could be as good as it appeared to be, but the buttons came and they’re great. If I keep sewing, I might spring for the bag of 1000 buttons, which is $9 or something equally incredible.

I’m so happy to be sewing again. 🙂