Plum dress: 1-day Side Project

There's something about preparing to go to an event such as a wedding, shower, holiday party of sorts that makes me want to get a new dress.  I have lots of dresses ranging from formal/cocktail to more casual and I really don't need another one, but I want one.

I have a few new rules for myself as closets in old houses are not very big.

1) Have you already been shopping this month?
-Yes. Baby gifts, wedding gifts and a bridesmaid dress.  Budget is blown.

2) Does it match one of your hats?
- I'm looking at one online, to match my yellow hat, but this is going to be a wedding with lots of hugging old friends and dancing.  So the yellow hat will get in the way.  Defaulting to my favorite big "purple" hat (straw hat with purple accents).

3) Do I still want a new dress?
-Yes.

I've just recently re-organized all of my fabric in color order and into the attic this summer.  I don't use it very often, but it's good to have on-hand.  I have had this great quilting fabric in my stash for some time.  I bought it on sale at Country Stitches because it was in my colors (purple and army green) and I couldn't pass it up.  It's been calling to me from the drawer to make a skirt out of it, but I hadn't found a good skirt design.  However, I do have a dress design that I currently like.

(Dress pinned to the form, no zipper)

So I decided to make the dress.  Since I've gotten a dress form that I keep adjusted to my size, and a nice sewing machine (also purchased at Country Stitches), I only measured up the length of the skirt.  The rest I pinned and adjusted on the dress form.  This makes dress-making so much faster!  (There were the days where I'd pin, try on, with pins sticking me, re-pin.  This is a long process.)

It had a few small issues, but really, I wanted it to be a quick and functional project, which it was.  It fit great and worked well for the wedding, with the hat and earrings in matching colors.

(Matt and Lauren, Photo stolen from my mom's Facebook)

A huge congrats to Matt and Lauren who have been great friends for most of my life.  I've known Matt since elementary school and Lauren since high school.  I'm so happy for them to start their next adventure!