It has been a while since the last time I posted. Lots of things have been going on in my work and personal life keeping me busy, but I have been working on a ton of projects. One of them is this lovely shirt dress. I used Simplicity Lisette pattern 2246 with a few minor changes.
I used pattern version C, except without sleeves. I also used one fabric pattern for the whole dress instead of two. The fabric is Arizona Triangle Tokens from Art Gallery Fabrics. You can't tell from the picture, but the yellow triangles are actually metallic gold. I am so in love with Art Gallery Fabrics, they have so many fun patterns in a ton of different colors. I'm still fairly new to dressmaking, so I'm still learning new techniques when using sewing patterns. Since I decided to make this pattern sleeveless, I had to figure out how to finish the arm holes. My first thought was to sew bias tape around the raw edges, but after doing one arm hole I decided it didn't look good. After some research I found this tutorial on Indie Sew to create a clean hidden finish using bias tape.
I had some problems when sewing the hem on the bottom of the skirt. Due to the edge being curved, the fabric kept bunching on me. I couldn't get the hem even. I found a tutorial on Creative Homemaking for sewing curved hems. You can find it here. It worked PERFECTLY!! Using this technique I got a perfectly even double hem. I am ecstatic to wear this dress this summer and even more excited to try out more dress patterns.