May’s Me-Made Dress

I’m back with another me-made dress!!! This dress is a re-make (better of course) of my very first self-drafted dress which I sewed in 2019. We already know that I love shirring and a full gathered skirt so this dress style is really the best of both worlds… all tied up together in a neat bow! (pun intended). This cotton fabric has the most gorgeous baby florals printed on it and I think it adds a pop of different colour into my me-made wardrobe. The thing I love about these strappy dresses are they look cute as is but also with a white t-shirt underneath for extra wear. Stitching this dress was a whole heap of fun because I managed to finish it in 1 day while having a working day with Holly Bush from The Bush Collective. I was busy sewing away with my machines while she was doing admin work for her photography business. 

I’ve been trying to make sure I have a variety of different dress lengths while doing this 12 month project because I want these dresses to last me for years and through different seasons of life. I was worried this one might have turned out too long to feel comfortable but it was just perfect. Sometimes when I’m self-drafting these types of tiered dresses I worry that the different sections might not look aesthetically pleasing or sit in the right place but this time I was very happy with the outcome. I opted for a more straight edge hem on the top of the bodice rather than the ruffle look of my February dress. I wasn’t sure it would work but turns out just rolling down the hem 1 inch after all the shirring is finished gives that perfect straight look. 

The last step was to secure the straps in place. Thankfully I had Holly there to help mark where on the bodice the straps needed to sit to cover my bra straps. I did shorten the straps but I think they still ended up a bit too long which is why I like to have the bows slightly on the back so they don’t get in the way and tickle my ears haha. 

Below is a super rough sketch of the pattern pieces I used for this dress design (without seam allowances and a little bit crooked). Please note, this is not a proper dress pattern or tutorial, but more a document of my process through this journey to make one dress a month for 2022. 

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