a baby blue party dress

I am asked about once a week what new things have I sewed. And even more recently I was asked “do you not sew anymore?” And the truth is I am always sewing! Well… not exactly. I am always in my head sewing. Or at least creating ideas of things I want to sew, projects I would love to tackle, or fabrics that I have been dreaming to get my hands on. But right now, Liam and I are in the grove of doing this toddler thing which consists of building train tracks, putting together puzzles, jumping on the sofa, running in circles, eating all the snacks, and then repeating this cycle until finally we all crash by 9pm with my sewing machine tucked away out of sight in the sunroom. Prior to Liam, my after work hours were empty for two hours while I waited for Will to come home.  And in the evening I was such a night owl who longed to have busy work to end my day with. So sewing became my thing. But life has a funny way of changing in an instant. And so even though I am not spitting out a new dress every week, my hands are still quite full of other tasks.

BUT anyways, this was the longest intro into a blog post, all to tell you that, look, I actually did sew a thing this summer. A little blue dress for a fun fake wedding photo shoot! I was recently contacted by Sarah from Click Away Photography who was coming to Charleston to style a fake-wedding and wanted some models to pose as wedding guests. The color palate for the wedding was neutrals and naturally I had “nothing to wear.” So I decided to pick up some fabric and make a little blue dress. Perfect for an outdoor wedding at Lowndes Grove.  It was a beautiful day, perfect weather… and then it rained. So excuse the wet-dog appearance that is my hair. But the dress and the toddler are pretty darn cute.  I decided to go with an old faithful pattern: the Party Dress by April Rhodes. I used a lightweight quilting cotton so it doesn’t have as much drape as a rayon but it still worked nicely for the pattern and was a breeze to sew with and only needed two yards. April does a great job with this pattern, which is probably why I always go back to it. And uses some nice techniques such as darting and french seams. Definitely add this pattern to your bag of tricks if you haven’t already! 

The Fabric: unsure of the maker. light blue quilting weight cotton from JoAnn’s.

The Pattern: the Party Dress by April Rhodes.

My Alterations: the only modification I made was to add two back darts similar to where my front bodice darts are, just to bring in the dress a little more on my waist.

Final Thoughts:  I love the ease of this dress. How you can dress it up with heels and earrings or dress it down with boots and flops.

Thank you again to Click Away Photography for these fun photos! Check them out on Instagram if you are in the Charlotte area and are in need of a photographer!