This weekend we celebrated our 2nd anniversary. I still cannot believe how lucky I am to have had two great years of marriage under my belt with this man. The man with more patience, kindness, love, and emotional understanding than any man I have ever known. And while year number one of marriage was all rainbows and butterflies, year number two was a long and at times a tough year with some big losses and a little bit of stress. But together we made it and everyday I thank God, I thank Will, and I thank anyone else that will listen to me, that I had that man by my side through this year. We made it. So bring on year number three!
So moving on from the mushy stuff, I wanted to share with you two things: our anniversary trip to Asheville, NC and the Blue Ridge Mountains, and also my latest DIY sewing creation: the Tank Dress from Sew Caroline.
To start with our trip, it began last Friday. We drove up to Saluda, NC to stay the night at Wills’ parents’ mountain house. Saturday was filled with hiking….and hiking….and more hiking. We saw a total of 4 waterfalls, Will of course got sunburned (yes even under shaded trees this man gets sun burned), and I got sore in muscles I didn’t even know I had. Here are a few pictures from Saturday’s hike.
Exhausted from our day of hiking, Sunday we woke up early and headed to Asheville to check into the spa at Grove Park Inn. If you have never been here, I highly HIGHLY recommend it. We spent the next eight hours in the sauna, steam room, hot tub, laying out on the deck, reading by the fire pit in our robes, more hot tub, taking naps, getting poolside bartender service, swimming laps in the mineral pool, breathing deeply in the inhalation room, more hot tub, sitting under a waterfall therapeutic massage hot tub (oh yeah), and then repeat all over again. Will and I were in heaven.
So that was it for our trip! Now on to the dress. The Thursday night before we left, we decided to stay up late and watch a movie. Stay up late and “watch a movie” in this house really means Will falls asleep on the couch and I sew until 1 am. So I did. And tada! Now I am ready for our trip with my new dress.
I recently purchased 2 yards of fabric from Leah Duncan’s “Tule” collection with no real project in mind when I bought it. But I am so in love with teal and anything slightly resembling teal for this spring that when I decided to do the dress, I knew this fabric would do just right.
This dress was super easy to sew and again, like Caroline’s last pattern the Out and About Dress, the pattern directions were well written and easy to follow. I sewed a size medium but added 2 extra inches of length just to be on the safe side since I am so tall. I also did not add pockets because I didn’t want to add any extra “bulk” to the side of the dress and also I wasn’t sure with this fabric how see-through it might be and didn’t want to risk having the pockets show through. But that is what is great about this pattern, lots of options!
This was my third attempt at using elastic thread. I did it first with my Washi dress and then again with my first Staple dress (this was before I was a blogger, so no photos have ever been seen of my Staple dress. I should really do another one though) and both times my bobbin and my elastic thread had a harmonious relationship full of love and cooperation. This time, not so much. I wound my bobbin by hand and even adjusted my tension, however each time I tried to run it through, my test fabric would get stuck and I would shout out some nasty words (Will continued to sleep on the couch and was oblivious to my elastic thread dilemmas). So I decided to let the elastic thread win this one and I went for the elastic casing option. And in the end I was happy with that decision.
My favorite part about the dress is the shirt tail hemline. I used Heat-n-Bond Hem tape so that I got a perfect 1/2 inch hem all the way around and that worked wonders! I can’t believe I went so long without using that for all my hems!
I don’t have any photos of the back of the dress or many close ups. I thought since it was our anniversary I would give Will the weekend off from playing photographer for me. But when we stumbled across this beautiful tree in the mountains and I just happened to be wearing my Tank Dress, I couldn’t resist a quick photo session
For more photos of the Tank Dress, check out Sew Caroline’s blog. She also just released a new top that will perhaps be making it’s way to my sewing table sometime soon!”
xxoo Priscilla
//Pattern: The Tank Dress $16/ Fabric: Tule by Leah Duncan for Art Gallery Fabrics, ~$20 for 2 yards at Five Eighth Seams / Flip flops: Rainbows / Belt: Forever 21 //
