Simplicity 2373 -- Sundress

This little dress, from Simplicity 2373, was made pre-blog (summer 2011), but since I'm on a sewing jag here I thought I'd throw it in.  It's a sundress, made out of a cotton print fabric from Hobby Lobby.  I don't remember where I purchased the turquoise grosgrain ribbon trim.

Again I made a size 10.  I was concerned about the front pleats being too 'poufy', especially with the stiffer cotton (and they were), so I sewed the pleats down probably another 6 inches, but far enough to keep the abdominal area flat.  I think that was the only place I deviated from the pattern instructions.

This pattern is classified as "easy," which I find to be a relative term.  A more accurate terminology would be "easier than some other patterns you could try but still takes effort (and concentration, and seam-ripping.)"  The trickiest part was topstitching all that ribbon down.  I used a gray thread to sew the dress together, but the ribbon top-stitching needed to be done in turquoise to match. 

I feel a little decadent about admitting this, but I used two sewing machines on this dress:  my Singer 401 for the main construction, and my Singer 301 for topstitching the ribbon.  This worked wonderfully because the way the dress is constructed, you can't save all the topstitching for the end.  It needs to be done as you go along, which would have necessitated changing the threads out several times, along with the stitch settings, etc.  Also, because the Singer 301 is a straight-stitch machine, the feed dogs are closer together, helping it to do a great job of stitching right on the edges of the ribbon.  So if you need justification for picking up a vintage straight stitch machine, this could be one of your excuses:)

Here's a back view:

There is an invisible zipper underneath the left arm.

Again, I am just happy to have made something my daughter does actually wear.  Prior to this dress I had made her a corduroy dress, and I had worked very carefully on it, but it was simply not wearable:  the style was just "yuck." I try not to let those kind of failures discourage me (remember Mrs. Frizzell:  "Go ahead! Get messy! Make mistakes!:), but instead just chalk it up to more experience and keep moving forward.  I advise you to do the same because it's very rewarding when things do turn out well.