With the Summer heat kicking in ...

... and with Brisbane having a predicted temperature of 33° in two days time, a summer dress will definitely be the flavour of the day! So I thought I would sneak in a little summer dress making.


And I do love spring and summer sewing the best, so had plans on kick-starting the season with a dress. Well, actually I need to backtrack just a tad. My original plan (we all know about plans and sewing) was to participate in the PatternReview One Pattern, Many Looks challenge. Grabbed the pattern from the stash, set up the Pinterest inspiration board (and many hours just disappeared drooling) and then came to a bit of a stop! Well, the stop was just from work, winter lurgies and life in general, but the poor sewing cave went into hibernation. So it is now time to blow of the dust and get those dress plans back into action.

The pattern is an oldie (like me) but a goodie! McCall's 8788 ...

... a simple, basic semi-fitted dress with front and back darts! Nothing fancy, but it is a closest go-to for ease of wear and the perfect style to add variety to my summer wardrobe. Spotlight had a cocoa-coloured monoprint stretch cotton sateen that grabbed me, so it became a dress! The fabric ended up being a bit of a problem - it was printed off grain for about a 20cm strip along one selvedge. Just looked like it was heading south and taking a dip. Such a waste of fabric ...

Anyway, I love how it turned out and I love the ease of sewing a simple dress. Followed the instructions fairly loosely (it is a simple dress style after all), swapped the zipper for an invisible zipper ...


... added a bottom band for no particular reason, but I just felt as if the print was going forever on me and needed a break ...

... and added a contrast binding strip to give the illusion that this band was meant to be ...

And lined the dress purely for wearing ease ... oh, and I had to factor in all the usual changes ~ full bust, rounded shoulders, narrow shoulders, sway back etc, etc, etc...

And there you have it, the first dress of summer. Ready for work next week ... yes, I am on school holidays at the moment. YEAH!!!!! I will be making more of these, I can't help myself - super simple, easy to wear and versatile for work, casual or hitting the town! 

So tell me, what is your favourite dress pattern for summer!

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