Sunday, July 9, 2017

Scrapbusting Racerback Dresses

A few months back I made these dress for the little ladies in my life: my two nieces and the two daughters of our friends in Bangkok.


For these dresses I used the Racerback Dress pattern (free!) from Hey June. Simple, wearable, adorable.


I made four of these in one day, assembly line style, piecing them together as efficiently as possible without mixing up the pieces. It actually went really quickly, with the help of a few bowls with the sizes labeled on them. I was also sure to write the size in chalk on the wrong side of each piece, just in case. 


I sewed and pressed all of the bands at once, pieced the dresses all together, then sewed all the bands on in a row, and finished up with hemming and topstitching.


This pattern worked out really well on all of the girls! Since I didn't have their measurements, I just guessed their sizes based on their ages, erring on the side of too big, just in case. All the girls are skinny and tall.



The fabric is this pink jersey I got from Girl Charlee several years back. For inexplicable reasons I bought approximately 70 billion yards of it. I think I thought it was going to be more of a stylish red and white marl rather than the weird pink it turned out to be... like Silly Putty.


Anyway, I've been drawing down my stash of this pink stuff gradually. Even though it doesn't look good on me, it looks pretty good on the kids. Here, I thought pairing it with bright and cheery scraps from the Groove Dress I made my niece would lift it up a bit... and I was right! These Art Gallery knit scraps worked out perfectly, detracting from the sad pink.


I am considering this project a success! All the kids seem happy with the dresses and they are perfect for summer!