barely autumn dress

autumn has snuck up upon us in the northeast, but not before i could make one last summer dress for the year (maybe).  i made this dress by copying a dress i already owned and adding an elastic waist to change it up a little.  the original dress was pink on top and black on the bottom, and a-lined out.  

i bought the floral fabric on our last trip to finland, and the maker is liberty- which i believe is a english brand.  the cotton is very comfortable and superb quality.

somehow the dress became shorter than i intended. i guess my legs aren't as short as i thought!  

the one-hour dress

when one of my best friends showed me this dress tutorial she wanted to make, i immediately wanted to make one too. so we journeyed together to the fabric store and made an evening out of it. she chose a turquoise knit almost identical to the one pictured, and i chose a honey (or mustard) linen blend.

from craftsylish.com

without a belt, the dress is enormous. it could double as shelter in an emergency. with a belt (and a bit of adjusting) it becomes pretty cute (although not exactly slimming with this fabric). i was bombarded with compliments when i wore it to the office.

notice that the folding is more dramatic with linen

a laundry disaster

a few weeks ago, i posted about this dress. promptly after i posted the entry, i thoughtlessly threw the dress into the laundry for its' first wash. when i retrieved it from the washer, i was dismayed to find that the floral detail had completely unraveled into a mess of furry thread.

apparently the dress was hand wash only. normally i read labels on new clothing (actually, typically before i buy it), but since the dress was knit, it didn't even occur to me to check.