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Friday, February 7, 2014

The Purple Darling Dress

PatternDarling Ranges Dress by Megan Nielsen

So finally come February I have some time to show off my 2nd Darling Ranges dress. Since my last post, my boyfriend has returned home after living on the other side of the world for one and a half years, so it's suffice to say I've been a little preoccupied. We've been camping (camping pic below just for something different), climbed Mt Warning (and killed my knee in the process), explored the gorgeous city of Brisbane, bought a 14 ft catamaran, and booked a trip to Tasmania for next week to hike the Overland Track. So while it's been exhilarating, the sewing has been put in the back seat. While we had a few quiet days last week though, I insisted that he help me out and take a few pics of the dress I made back in December last year. 



The fabric is a Rayon Shirting that I bought on sale from fabric.com last year along with the fabric for my Oversized Ikat Top. Again, this dress like my first Darling Ranges dress was super simple to make, and I love it. Being summer though, I had to make the sleeveless version but the rest is pretty much the same. Again, I made it without pockets and added in some darts at the back because of my "sway back". I've tried to show the darts in the pic below, but not sure that they show up very well.




At first I'd bought some creamy coloured buttons that matched the ikat pattern but when I put them in place to start sewing them on I decided I absolutely hated them. They just made the dress look way too busy, so I had the idea in my head then that some clear buttons would solve the problem. After scouring the whole 2 sewing stores in my area though it became obvious that apparently clear buttons are just not 'cool' anymore as I couldn't find any anywhere. This actually worked to my advantage though as I then just tried any button at all and eventually came across a great purple button that matched the colour of the fabric impeccably well. Wow, I never knew I could be so happy with a button! I mean look at them, I don't think they could be more perfect.



So since I finished this dress last year just as Summer was starting up I've actually had quite a lot of time to put it to the test. And let me say it has passed all tests with flying colours. I've had quite a few people tell me how much they like my dress and they are quite impressed that I made it myself. Now, I'm not sure if their being impressed is due to my fine sewing skills or from their complete lack of faith in my abilities :P but I really don't mind either way. It's also by far the most comfortable dress that I own so I've been wearing it almost every second day as it's nice and cool for the summer too. And to top it all off, I can shove it in my backpack and get it out a few days later and you can barely see the crumples so it's great for travelling as well.




Seriously, I love this dress pattern. I really don't think this will be the last one I make.

Would I make it again? I'm pretty sure I don't need to answer that.

What would I do differently? Make more than 1 at a time as it is so simple and comfortable?

Next up, I've started making the Ava Top by Victory Patterns. It's been a bit more difficult for my level of sewing, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can get though it without too many hiccups.

Thanks for stopping by, and feel free to leave me some links to your own sewing pursuits, I love to see what everyone else is up to!

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