Thursday, February 25, 2010

Beach dress

IMG_0706 by you.


My best friend was in town for a visit last weekend, and I took her with me to a local fabric outlet, Golden D'or.  I'm a bit of a cheapskate, and it's one of my favorite places to browse for bargains.  Oh and also to pick up dirt-cheap notions like elastic, velcro and zippers.  She found this very pretty thin cotton fabric on the clearance table and asked me to make a shirred beach dress/swim coverup for her to wear this summer. 

This fabric seemed a bit dingy and flimsy under the fluorescent lighting in the store, but I must say, it looked much prettier after we got it home.  It also washed up beautifully soft, and I think the thinness will be perfect for a hot day at the beach.

It's been a while since I've done a shirred dress, and this was my first attempt at an adult-sized one.  It's hard to tell from the pic, but it's about knee length, maybe a little bit longer.  I've definitely come a long way though since the very first one I made for E, almost 2 years ago!  Thanks to my serger, I did rolled hems with wooly nylon on the top and bottom.  I love the contrast of the white against the hot pink.  Then I just did a quick serged seam to make it a tube and started shirring away!  It goes so much faster when you have someone else to wind the elastic on the bobbins for you. ;)

I love how this turned out, so much so that I may go back and buy some of the same fabric in blue for myself.  I'm dropping it in the mail today and hoping my friend will take a pic of herself wearing the dress and let me post it. *hint hint*

6 comments:

The Comfort Girl said...

So cute! You must show me how to do that rolled hem. :) I'm afraid my serger and I are still only casual acquaintances, not really good friends like I'd like to be.

Michelle said...

I'd be happy to! Ever since I had my free lesson (and also serged about 100 rolled hems), I've been feeling fairly friendly with it. ;)

Sarah Greenman said...

Me too, me too! I need some serging lessons. And how stinkin' cute is that pink dress. Love it.

Jacki said...

Very cute!!! I love it!! Good job on the rolled hem. You know, I wind my elastic thread on my machine and have no issues. ;)
I only mention this b/c we have the same machine.
I love Golden D'or. Sometimes I think that because some of those fabrics had been destined for garment production they have a bit more sizing in them then the typical fabric from, say, JoAnn.
I've bought some I thought would be just barely ok, that shaped up marvelously after washing!

Stacey said...

Very cute! I just stumbled across your blog...fun stuff! I have a two year old girl as well (and a couple of others in the mix) and have been learning to sew some fun things. I love how you just dove right into it...clothes scare me!!! LOL

mee said...

I will send you a pic soon!

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