Goal: Everyday Wearability

As I've mentioned before recently, I haven't been sewing as much as normal this summer and much of what I've made is for other people, mostly my granddaughter. Which is fine. I love sewing for her, but I do want to sew at least a few more dresses for myself and I have been thinking I will only have time for two or three more this summer. With that in mind, I want to make something that I will definitely wear a lot, so this dress has all my favorites: colorful floral print on a dark background,* not paisley but sort of a paisleyish feel, fitted princess bodice with a low back from one pattern and a plain gathered skirt from another, side zipper, my favorite length, low mid-calf, and of course, pockets!

First the fabric:

Just look at those colors! So many of my favorites in one print.

And the dress:

The pocket picture was badly out of focus and the back picture was overexposed due to the sun literally glaring off my pasty white back so you'll just have to use your imagination on those 'cuz I'm not tryin' again.

I love it. It's exactly what I wanted it to be. I will definitely wear it often for the rest of the summer and maybe into the fall and even early winter as a jumper because I have several long sleeved t-shirts in the right colors to go with it.

*I love lighter prints too but I can never feel entirely comfortable in them because I'm always afraid of spilling something on them or brushing up against something dirty so I feel like I have to be very careful all day. Yes I know, the same things can happen with bright colors. It's not logical; it's psychological.

Wearing the Tropics

It came to my attention a while back that I did not have a dress with flamingos on it; that is, I saw a dress with flamingos that another sewing blogger was showing off and had to have one myself. (I can't remember where or exactly when I saw it; it was at least a year ago.) So I took my time looking and eventually found the most awesome fabric with flamingos, big tropical flowers and leaves and even a few pineapples, and this is what I ended up with:

It's a lovely, lightweight 100% cotton. I used Simplicity 1803, view C, as the starting point for my creating because I have been fussing with these princess seams forever and have almost got them right. I eliminated the front bodice seam and used a plain skirt from a different pattern because the one in S1803 has too many seams. Who needs all those extra seams when you have a big beautiful print? I completely changed the front neckline and, as always, it has pockets and a side zipper.

Here's the back. I love these scoop backs in the summer.

I didn't even attempt pattern matching because I was a little short of fabric. In fact, I had to use a solid light blue fabric for the facings. But I really don't mind all that much. I'm not quite that OCD about matching.

This is one of the kind of dresses that make me smile all day long when I'm wearing it so here's another pic of me showing off.

Inspiration

I found this photo on the Vintage Fashion Archive Facebook page. I am especially interested in the dress on the left.

That looks like it would be easy to copy. I might already have a pattern or patterns that would work. Things I would change: 1. Eliminate the seam down the front. 2. The bodice is a little too blousy. I think those might not be actual princess seams, just trim, so I would make an actual princess seam bodice. (Are you starting to see what attracted me to this dress?) 3. A more fun color, likely a print - a tiny floral or geometric print or maybe pin dots.

Also, I'm not sure about the sleeves. I wear dresses mostly in the summer and tend to not wear anything with sleeves very often - in fact almost never. But I'm not sure how this would look without sleeves. I'm having difficulty picturing it. So maybe a winter dress with long sleeves. But, again, I mostly wear dresses in the summer, rarely in the winter, so I'm afraid it would end up being one of those dresses I only wear to funerals, unless I made it in a color or print that would be totally inappropriate, in which case I might never wear it, and both of those scenarios make me sad.

So anyway... those are just some early thoughts. What do you think?