A New Dress For Daughter

I feel a bit as though all the dresses I sewed for myself last month used up all my sewing energy for January and February.  But here at the tail end of the month, I seem to be getting a little of my own back.

 The pattern is Butterick 3350 which I reviewed on PatternReview.com last year.  Read the review

The fabric, ribbon, thread, and zipper all come from JoAnn fabrics.  The fabric is a plain old quilting cotton, but I liked this pretty calico print and the thread is Gutermann.

 Since I've used this pattern already, fabric cutting to final hem only took a couple of hours a day for a couple of days.  Daughter likes this Sweetheart neckline very much -- this is the second dress I've made for her with this neckline.  Both sides aren't perfectly matched, but I'm really thinking that no one is going to notice that.

The back tie is grosgrain ribbon, which Daughter has always preferred to a self fabric tie.

This time I used an invisible zipper for the back closure.  They take a little practice, but are well worth learning how to do well.

I used steam-a-seam to get the lining to hold still at the waist seam, and then top stitched on the right side to attach the lining at the waist.  And I hand sewed the lining to the zipper.