My Easter Dress

 

I finished my Easter dress just in time to wear on Easter Sunday! I used a pattern I have made before - the Bebe dress pattern from Sew Serendipity. The fabric is Anna Maria Horner cotton voile that I bought from fabric.com and has been sitting in my stash for over a year. I had actually planned on making myself a dress using the Bebe pattern with this fabric for Easter. Sometimes I change my mind when it comes to fabric and patterns!

This was my first time working with cotton voile and I didn't realize how sheer it was until I started cutting out the pieces. After reading this post from Sewaholic, I decided to underline my dress rather than line it. I did this for several reasons...I thought it would be easier to underline the bodice since the front has darts and the process was easier to wrap my head around especially since the original pattern did not provide instructions for underlining. It is a very easy process and Tasia explains it very well in her post!

After reading about lining fabrics, I decided to try cotton batiste because it is a lightweight cotton and it is very soft. The dress feels so nice to wear!! I bought the cotton batiste from fabric.com when it was on sale. Since it was 60" wide fabric I thought I could get away with buying 1.5 yards instead of 2.75 as the pattern calls for. It took some creativity to lay the pieces out just right, but it worked with hardly a scrap left to spare!

I added a hemband on the bottom of the dress using some heavier black cotton. It helps the skirt hang nicely by giving it some weight. The sleeves have a hemband as well.

 

We found a beautiful location to stop and take pictures on our way home from church on

Easter! The weather was absolutely gorgeous too!

 

I made the gathered version instead of the pleated version for this dress. I like the fitted empire waistline and the flowy skirt. It has just the right amount of gathers without being overly poofy either. The sleeves have a slight gather too, which I like. The fabric is just perfect - I love the voile and I would definitely use it in clothing projects again!

 

 

 The dress has an invisible zipper down the back. The more dresses I make with invisible zippers, the more I enjoy putting them in! I'm getting so much better at them too. In my first Bebe dress, the zipper broke and I had to tear it out and start over. This time it went in without any bumps in the road and it is nearly invisible if you don't look too closely. Also, the zipper looks so nice and finished at the top! It's so great!!

 

 

I was so happy with how well the zipper turned out! Practice makes perfect!

 

 

This will be the perfect summer dress and I can't wait to wear it more often. It is so comfortable!

 

 I hope you all had a lovely and blessed Easter!

 

~Elizabeth