Felicity Dress

Today, I have my newest sewing project to show you! This is the Felicity Dress by Jennifer Lauren Vintage and I made it to wear to my nursing pinning ceremony and graduation. It is a new pattern released in February and as soon as I saw it on Jennifer's blog, I knew it was what I wanted to make for graduation.

The Felicity Dress comes with the option for a gathered skirt or 3/4 circle skirt. It was an easy decision to make because I love circle skirts! They are so fun to wear. 

The pattern has two darts in the back and a zipper. The instructions called for putting in a lapped zipper, but I prefer invisible zippers. Either way works just fine. I was also crunched for time since I was making this in my last few weeks of school before graduation, so an invisible zip was much quicker too. I also put a hook and eye in for the first time. Much easier than I ever imagined!

I am so excited that the Felicity Dress has pockets!! I always intend to add pockets to dress/skirt patterns but I always forget. Pockets are essential sometimes. :) I did sew one pocket in the wrong way out, but it's not a huge problem. It's not noticeable until you put your hand in and feel the seam. 

The neck and arms are bound with bias binding made from the dress fabric. It was a long, slow process to make my own bias binding, but worth it! The bias binding makes for a nice clean finish too. 

I had a lot of fun taking pictures for this post. :)

I used Kelly Green rayon challis from Fabric.com. It is very soft and flowy, perfect for this dress. The most difficult part was cutting it out. It shifts around so much! I also cut it out on the floor in my bedroom at my college house. There's not much space, but I didn't have a big table either. I took it slow and made it work. I also made the bodice two layers by underlining it because the fabric is a bit thin. 

The inside of the dress is just as pretty as the outside! I used french seams for all the seams except the back zipper seam. It was my first time sewing french seams and I love how it turned out! It was much easier than trying to use my overlock stitch especially with how much the fabric shifted.

One of my favorite parts of this dress is the gathered front bodice. The gathering takes away the need for darts in the front and it makes for a great fit! The only changes I made to the pattern were to add an inch to the front and back bodice because my muslin version was a little short. I also had to grade the pattern at the waist/hips as I always do. I lengthened the dress by 5 inches too because I'm tall and I wanted the skirt to fall past my knees. Because I added length to the skirt, I was not able to cut the front skirt in one piece, so there is a seam down the front. I don't mind and it's hardly visible.

I loved wearing the Felicity dress at graduation. I will be wearing it a lot this summer and I'd like to make another one..maybe using a print.

~Elizabeth