Happy Memorial Day everyone! Will and I spent the better part of the weekend in Wadmalaw Island, SC at the First Flush Festival. (We spent the later part of the weekend maxing out my credit card at the fertility clinic. But thats a whole ‘nother story for ‘nother day.) The First Flush FesTEAval is held annually out at the Charleston Tea Plantation, the only operating tea plantation in the entire United States. It’s a big music and arts festival that celebrates the first harvest of this year’s tea crops. Every year they have tons of bands that play throughout the day and the Avett Brothers were headlining this year. The festival has been an annual event for my group of friends and it was fun celebrating the weekend with good music, good beer, great friends, and a whole lot of sweet tea.
Ok, now on to the dress. I had this old jersey knit white bed sheet. This sheet then navigated it’s way into the back seat of my car because Will decided to use it as seat protector and let the dogs lay on it while riding in the backseat. Nothing wrong with that. I am always wash the sheets with bleach. BUT one day I find that our 10 year old dog Legolas, most likely in a fit of boredom or just plain curiosity, has decided to chew a few holes into this sheet. This at first upset me because those sheets were awfully comfy but then I felt bad because poor Leggy had some uncomfortable bowel movements for the next 24 hours or so. But ANYWAYS…. enough on that. So there I was now with a queen sized sheet that I dare not throw away since I am a hoarder. So I decided to re-purpose this white jersey bed sheet into useable fabric for part of my next project.
I recently made the Sewaholic Salt Spring dress in a light weight cotton vintage fabric (remember it?) My friend Brooke recently made a version using a rayon challis that was adorable and what I loved about her version is that she did not have to add a zipper. I have loved every version of this dress that I have seen so far, so I decided that I would try to make one out of knit. And what a better place to start than with my “new” white jersey knit fabric (why thank you Legolas and your weird chewing obsessions).
I decided to switch up the straps and do a thin braided strap versus doing tie straps like it has in the instructions. This was pretty easy to do. I just cut three thin stips, sewed the edges, braided the three strips, and then used an old tank top of mine to measure how much length I would need. I decided to also had a decorative strip of fabric on top to cover the seam from where the braids and the bodice piece matched up. I think it added a little something extra and also covered my pretty shooty sewing that I did in that area (hey cut me some slack, it was midnight by this point and that braided jersey knit strap was a slippery little booger).
Just realized I am wearing the ridiculous neon green festival arm bracelet in all of these photos. And I am holding a glass of sweet tea. Naturally. 
The Details:
Pattern: The Saltspring Dress by Sewaholic, purchased at Five Eighth Seams
Bodice Fabric: re-purposed old bed sheet- jersey knit
Skirt Fabric: Coral Triangle Arrows – cotton jersey knit blend from Girl Charlee
Belt: Mossimo from Target
Necklace: Madewell
White Sunglasses: Got these bad boys for free at the festival. Thanks Rex Goliath!
Headband: Word Market
Hope everyone had a safe and happy weekend and happy Memorial Day!
xxoo Priscilla
