The Three-Way Dress With Three Changes + Three Fabrics

The past few weeks have been tough for finding sewing time.  A seriously nasty bout of poison ivy, guys working on our house after some storm damage, plus putting together a bridal shower & other wedding-related arrangements for my sister have left my poor craft room sorely neglected.  And when I finally got a few snippets of free time I was just to tired to start anything new.  So this past weekend I thought I'd ease back into things by making a sweet little dress.

I used a pattern called the Three-Way Dress from Ottobre Design's Spring 3/2009 issue and made some tweaks of my own to get it just right.  As I've mentioned before I've got mixed feelings about Ottobre Design patterns.  I love how many cute, varying size items are in a single issue and I've found some great go-to designs I've used time and time again. However, I've also found the directions frequently vague and the construction steps can be unnecessarily complicated which can be super frustrating.  I've shared some of my other Ottobre Design experiences with the Tiny Trenchcoat, Mariner Dress, Birthday Tea Dress and Union Suit Romper.  The results have ended up nice, but usually with some necessary creative changes.  Luckily this one was pretty minimal.

I had this lovely trio of coordinating prints, the Matilda collection by Alice Kennedy, some new prints from Timeless Treasures, that I knew would be perfect for a little dress.  

This pattern was pretty much a pillowcase dress, but gave sleeveless, flutter and cap sleeved options and I loved the fluttery look.  I made some changes to the sleeves since the pattern said to just serge or overcast the raw edges, which didn't seem very finished to me.  So I cut double the pieces and sewed them together, then topstitched them, so they would be nice and lined instead.

I also opted for using elastic for the gathering at the top instead of running a plain ribbon through for a tie.  This makes it a lot easier to get on and off and keeps the gathering more even after a wash.

It called for using just two prints, one for the body and another for the hem, so I made some bias tape from the tiny raindrop fabric and trimmed the armholes and hem with it.

I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out and I love how well the tiny, medium & big prints work together.  It's been a nice way to get my sewing sweetness going again! 

I'm also sharing this project with my FAVE LINK PARTIES.

Click HERE to check them out!

I was not financially compensated for this post.  I received fabric from my Sponsor, Timeless Treasures to use as I desired.  The opinions are completely my own based on my experience.   For my complete disclosure policy, click here.