Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Southwestern Pottery Inspired Dress

Update: Since I have received so many comments about this fabric I thought I would let you know that I purchased it from Fabric.com . They still have 74 yards left as of today and I am planning to purchase some more myself.

I finally did it! I made my self cut into one of my favorite pieces of fabric. Do you ever do that? Love a fabric so much that your afraid to use it. Luckily an event so big came along that I was able to face my fears and go ahead and cut. This week is the first week of the Project Run and Play sew along linky.

I searched through a bazillion (btw, bazillion is not actually a real number) photo's of famous paintings and loved so many of them, but I got zero (zero is a number in math but in philosophy it is the opposite of infinity and not a number) idea's for a wearable item.

So then I played with the idea of statues. A few things started to take shape in my mind, but I needed some color. Finally I looked at pottery, and there it was my inspiration. The pottery of the Southwest.

Here are a few of my favorite inspiration pieces. 

The fabric is a lightweight cotton sateen with just a tiny bit of stretch to it. I used my ugly vintage pattern as a starting point for the bodice and then lengthened it a few inches and made the neckline just a tiny bit lower. The skirt is self drafted. I left an inch of seam allowance on the top of the skirt and the bottom of the bodice.

To create the elastic casing I began by sewing the skirt and bodice with wrong sides together like you would with a french seam and then I flipped the fabric so that right sides were together and sewed about 3/4 of an inch away from the first seam. Before inserting the elastic I sewed the casing down so it laid flat against the inside of the dress.


My Bella was the lucky recipient of the dress. She can't wait for the snow to go away and the sun to come out so she can wear it some more. I really love the way this dress came out. I am thinking about making another one with pockets. They will make great summer dresses. So are you sewing along this season?
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10 comments:

  1. Love the fabric! It looks great on your little girl! And yes, I have fabric that I just hold my breath whenever I cut into it and pray I don't mess it up cause I love it so much! :D

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  2. What a great fabric for a beautiful dress!

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  3. Thanks so much everyone for your kind words

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  4. I want this little number in my size. :) Looks great!

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  5. Beautiful fabric! I hope you'll stop by and link up to Make It Wear It link party at TheTrainToCrazy.com!

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  6. Love the dress and the inspiration and the fabric and the photos!!! The whole thing is AWESOME!!!
    (I cut out a similar kind of dress last week but haven't sewn it up yet. I hope it comes out as cute as yours did.)
    -liZ

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  7. That is beautiful! I only wish I could sew since my daughter is now in between lovely girls' clothes and a-bit-too-revealing-for-my-taste juniors' clothes and it is nearly impossible to find anything for her to wear. Your daughter is very lucky and thanks for linking up to Pin It Tuesday! :)

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  8. This is super cute!! I do love that fabric, too, and the play off of the inspiration pieces - very cool!

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  9. Those are some very dreamy pictures. thanks for sharing.
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  10. awesome cute dress. looks beautiful. We have a great collection of African fabrics. Good quality at lowest price. For whole sell price Visit us hope you guys love them.
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