Do you say “ladybug” or “ladybird”? In my family, we say “ladybug”. My husband’s family (being English) say “ladybird”. I have to say, I think that’s much prettier (if somewhat oddly inaccurate). We’re just going to ignore the whole “all my bugs have two X chromosomes” thing.
I had about a yard left of this very odd linen print fabric that I got several years ago from FabricMart. Unfortunately, they neglected to mention that the print lot was flawed and what looked like white background actually turned out to be splotchy misprinted pale yellow. This is only noticeable in bright natural light, of course, so the last time I used it I didn’t realize it was blotchy until I went to pick up my daughter at daycare at the end of the day. Still, the print is SO CUTE that I decided to just go ahead with the new dress.
I wanted a sleeveless dress for summer, since I’m pretty sure TLo’s new metabolism is going to make her absolutely miserable in the summer heat. I decided to adapt McCalls 5695. This worked out pretty well, but I made quite a few alterations to the original pattern.
1) I took off the sleeves (obviously).
2) I drafted facings for the lower half of the armscyes (since there were now no sleeves and the yokes only covered half the armscye).
3) I added a slit-with-a-continuous-lap to the back to accommodate the two yoke pieces. McCalls has you do some crazy convoluted impossible piece of sewing to get the two yoke halves to attach to the single back panel. I thought it was ridiculous, so I just cut a slit and lapped it. Much easier.
Here are the all the photos with close-ups and interior pictures.
Unfortunately, this fabric wrinkles if you so much as look at it funny. I pressed this before I picked up the camera. By the time I took the photos above and got it on TLo, it looked like this.
Good thing my kids always look like their clothes came out of a laundry hamper. This will fit right in.
One summer dress down. A whole wardrobe to go.