Dressed in Donuts

Hello friends! I present to you my Donut Emery Dress. Sometimes it can be hard to visualize how a simple piece of fabric can be molded into something functional. I thought I'd get those wheels spinning by turning one of my own fabric designs into a wearable garment that would make even Ms. Frizzle proud (I know i'm not the only one who still watches The Magic School Bus). 

Dress: Made by Me using Donut You Want Some (purple) | Garment Pattern: Emery by Christine Haynes

The fabric is Donut You Want Some in purple printed on Kona Cotton. The garment pattern I used is Emery by Christine Haynes. After stalking every Emery made, I finally caved and bought the pattern. This dress is a lovely, simple, and classic silhouette which makes it the THE perfect garment to display boutique patterns in all their glory. The best part....it has pockets!!!!!!! It can't get any better than that. 

I made a quick muslin to see where I needed to adjust the fit. I ended up doing a small bust adjustment and shortened the bodice so that the waist falls at my natural waistline. On the muslin, I shortened the skirt by a few inches, but decided not to alter the length after all. I made this dress specifically for my brother's college graduation. I left the sleeves off because I was assuming that there was going to be some semblance of warmth in Rochester, Ny... boy was I wrong. Good thing it was held inside because it was freezing. Any who, I must say I really am infatuated with this dress. I even have donut earrings to match! 

left: old size || right: updated size

three color ways available printed on Kona Cotton

The fabric is available in my Spoonflower Shop in three different color ways. I changed the scale of the pattern in order to make it more suitable for smaller projects (this dress was made with the old size). While the Kona Cotton is a dream to work with, it does have a tendency to fade a bit with the first wash. The good news is that the basic cotton ultra and the new cotton lawn ultra fabric bases don't fade at all. Hip Hip Hurray for bright colors! 

Black, White and Knit all Over

Today I present to you the Marianne Dress by Christine Haynes. One of the four finished garments I've finished recently. The Marianne is Christine's newly released sewing pattern. As soon as I saw the post saying it was available I knew I HAD to make one…add to that a kit including this beautiful black and white striped knit and I was swooning. It's seriously the softest silkiest knit ever! All of the fabric kits are sold out, but there are still notion kits available. 

I ordered an organic black knit from Fabric.com in order to make view B. Pretty sure I still have enough of the black and white knit to make view A as well. My measurements were between size 0 and size 2, so I just cut the 0 since it included a good amount of ease already.I might cut a size 2 as well to make a drapier (?) version. If you look closely you can see that I left off the buttons on the cuffs. No life shattering explanation behind that choice…I just didn't have enough buttons plus I put myself on a sewing "no buy" for the rest of December haha. The struggle is real. 

This is a super quick sew and after cutting can easily be sewed up in a few hours. The instructions are clear and include notes on how to sew this dress up on a regular machine or a serger. There's really not much to say other than how much I love love love this dress. I'm definitely going to be making a whole heap of these… especially for summer. 

Keep a look out for the Marianne Sew-A-Long in the beginning of January! I'm already plotting my next version.