Alright, I realize it’s almost the end of August, but for the sake of record keeping :) here’s a quick rundown of my makes from July! There were two. They were both easy, and super comfy – as any summer makes should be, right!?

First up, the Santa Fe Top from Hey June! The pattern itself is great, as with all of hers (hence the hashtag!). I made view E in my usual size S, no alterations.

 

My star and stripe fabrics were from Girl Charlee, and the grey jersey is from Felinus Fabrics (purchased July 2015… yay for a little stashbusting! …well, if that’s what you call it when you buy a yard each of stars and stripes and barely use any, then use less than a yard of the jersey from your stash). :)

 

I didn’t have a good grey color thread at the time so I went for red and blue. Sometimes you want things to look RTW… sometimes you just have to go for things that you would never find in RTW. Like double color topstitching thread! Because you can.

 

Summer has been flying by sooo fast. As it always does, I guess, but since we moved and are getting all settled into the new house (slowly…) it’s just been a little extra crazy around here. I’m ready for things to slow down a little… and with that ready for Fall and all of the cozy things that come with it. Hmm… I’m sensing a theme here. Summer – comfy. Fall – cozy. Winter – snuggly? Basically I’m just setting myself up to sew with knits foreeever and always! :D

And with that I bring you a knit dress – what I’m calling my Striped Sunny Swing Tee Dress. :) Also posted last month on The Monthly Stitch for July’s challenge Spots & Stripes!

 

I’d been wanting to make a striped t-shirt dress for a long time so July’s theme gave me the perfect motivation to break into this wonderful striped jersey from Indiesew.

For some reason I’ve had a hard time finding the perfect pattern for a simple t-shirt dress with the style I was imagining, so instead I used a tee that I knew fit well (made one other time as a tee HERE), and lengthened it. It’s the Sunny Swing Tee pattern from The Sara Project… an awesome little free pattern if you haven’t seen it! I love the fit of the sleeves on this one.

 

Initially, I added about 20″ to the length of the tee, continuing outward at the same angle as the top… I was imagining closer to a midi length below the knee. I sewed the pieces together and realized I had definitely made a giant sleep shirt rather than a dress appropriate to wear in public. It’s really too bad I didn’t get a picture at that stage! So after that I added more shape to the top of the dress by bringing it in at the side seams about an inch and a half on each side on a curve and chopped some length off the bottom. If making it again, I would try reducing the shoulder width slightly also.

I made the dress fairly quickly (I started a couple of hours before I was supposed to be somewhere), but I’m happy to report that I was able to pattern match my stripes even in the time crunch! It’s always exciting when that works out, isn’t it!? I ended up wearing it to the event un-hemmed but finished it up later. No one except my mom noticed ;)

 

I used my double needle to hem… the tension was a little off on the sleeves, but I love how the bottom hem turned out!

So tell me… do you have any favorite t-shirt dress patterns?? Seeing how comfortable this one is I may need to make more… I’m currently eyeing the new Rumi Tank from Christine Haynes!

Until next time,