summer dress

Sidetracked is what happened to me last week – in a mass of projects I saw this beautiful fabric in my project pile and thought what can I make with this? Then a flash of inspiration came – why not combine your favourite top and skirt combination and see what happens? So I used the skirt of a favorite dress pattern of mine. For the top was a fabric a good friend in Portland gave me last time I visited. I really wanted to focus on the super cute birds in the print and used the Geometric Top pattern from the Burda Sewing Vintage Modern book – I pretty much wear the black version of this top every week to ceramics class and it can be layered with long sleeves and with its interesting cut it sits quite low and does not creep up when I am working on the wheel. This dress makes me so happy as yellow is my favorite color. Currently I am planning my wardrobe for when we leave the country to visit Australia in 4 weeks and it will be winter 😦 at least yellow is a happy colour!

Vintage chick fabric

The front of the dress has pockets – which I love

A V at the back of the top with a yellow fabric I found in my stash

This was going to be a Mothers Day dress but the day was far from what it is today, which is lovely and sunny! Yesterday by the beach in Pescadero the sun was hidden by cloud most of the day so I made this top in a wool to be worn as a layer. I like the way it turned out and it is a lot of fun with a short skirt and tights – an easy layering piece for a Sunday at the beach in California.

The geometric top in wool suiting

We had organized to meet our friends from Oakland in Pescadero for Mothers Day for lunch at Pescadero Country Store and after a feast we walked down to see the goats at Harley Farms. There were so many baby goats, way too much cuteness. After our 1 mile cruising walk we decided to go and hang out at the beach for a bit before heading home. Lucky for us we were there in time to see a family of whales swimming by in the shallows. We could see their little fins popping up out of the water and the air from their breathing holes – sweet! While we were at Pescadero there was a parade down the street celebrating the Portuguese community check out the mini horse taking these folks for a ride!

Dudes strike a pose – loving your mini horse!

We wandered up to Harley Farms to check out the goats as a tradition of ours for the many years we have been visiting Pescadero – no trip is complete without a visit to the goats! And we were in luck with seeing lots of baby goats and a trip up above the store to the hayloft where sat a huge table and chairs.

Just like being in Alice in Wonderland

As it was nice overcast weather we made our trip to the beach for a final farewell to Pescadero.

The pair of us on a rock – very rare photo op!

Missy finds clay and makes a cat

The cat closeup

Adding a bit of detail to the head

A bee in a poppy – one of my favorite photo captures

This guy found a whale bone – not really it is a stick!

This project started with the idea that I can make a flat pattern from this book and transfer it to a mock up of a dress to see if it would fit before I attempted to cut it out from the fabric out of my stash. It took a long time to measure the pattern accurately and then I used an old sheet for ‘scrap’ fabric and cut out the pattern. The first thing I noticed on the bodice was how small it is! So I then had to add a few inches here and there to compensate for the bust measurement. The skirt part was fine as it is a straight skirt and once I got the sizing of the top right everything was all fine.

The book – I Am Cute Dresses

The pattern from the book – the shift tunic

The plan was to use a silk fabric I have been saving but as it turns out I did not have enough! Instead I found a cotton which does not have the drape but still sits nicely around the shoulders and bust. It looks kind of space age in the pictures on the shoulders and back but that is the design of the dresses in this book, using straight and angular lines. I never thought I would see it finished with all the alterations and in the end I got there once the sizing of the pattern was spot on! The good thing I am enjoying about this is that you can make the dress to exactly suit your body measurement and these are somewhat easy to fit as they just hang straight.

I have bought a rayon fabric to see how this will come out in a softer fabric as I like the way the buttons on the original dress float in the fabric. I will try it soon, as this week is Spring Break so who knows how much free time I am going to have to play in the craft room.