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Hello! I'm Suzannah, a serious DIYer and mom of two little ones. Follow along with my DIY fixer upper house renovations, sewing and crafty projects, real food recipes, and de-stressing goals.
I believe you can love your home just the way it is, AND have the power to design and make big changes to make it better.
I'm also the author of DIY Wardrobe Makeovers!

Watercolor sundress--Zooey Deschanel?

With some sunny days off and on here in Oregon, I've been thinking about cute summery dresses!  I made this dress the other day:
The fabric is some my mom bought me a year or more ago at JoAnn's because she thought I would like it.  I've been saving it and I think it works great with this style!  I can't tell if the background is black or navy, so I doubt you can tell in the pics... I used dark navy thread but a black zipper, does that help?
I used my standby for strapless dresses, the discontinued McCalls 5849.  I made mine quite a lot longer than this, though, and added some ruching at the center front to make it look like gathered casing that houses the straps.
Funny, after I had made this dress, I saw a very similar print on one at Fred Flare!  It's cute but I stand by my design.

I looove Zooey Deschanel so on a photostream of her cute looks I saw this dress.  How cute is she?  The style is almost identical to mine; the strap closure is a little different.  If I wanted I could tack the halter ties down in the back to get this look.
Hooray for summer!

20 comments

  1. Zooey rocks all over the place. I think your dress is quite loverly

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  2. It's gorgeous - the shape is just perfect! This spring I've been really into dark backgrounds with florals. It's something a bit different from the usual pastel colours for the summer.

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  3. Wow! It really does resemble the Fred Flare dress - love it!

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  4. Anonymous4/30/2010

    I just found this pattern online for $2. Yay!

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  5. oh i love it! your talents never cease to amaze me. :)

    Happy Friday!

    Bre @ http://theredbungalow.blogspot.com

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  6. cute! I love the fabric!

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  7. it turned out beautifully! i particularly love the strap addition, i think it's so flattering for summer. I may just have to make a knock-off. ;)

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  8. So cute!! Love it--and I think Zooey is adorable!

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  9. cute! Do you think something life this would work in a knit? That would be so comfy:)

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  10. Oh that is sooooo cute!! GREAT Job!!

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  11. Fantastic dress! I'm also a fan of Zooey too and love her girly, quirky style. Love the neck strap addition to the strapless dress, kind of like a safety feature!

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  12. I'm totally following ur blog, I just love it, I also love to make clothes and decorating items specially out of recycled materials, I luv creating new things out of old materials, I just wish I could have time to a project each day, and this dress came out gorgeous by the way, Great Job!
    xoxo

    www.flowerchildstyle.blogspot.com

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  13. That dress is fab, I love the print! Good idea on making it a bit longer too...it's a perfect day dress length :D

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  14. Very Zooey esque! It would look awesome with a jean vest over top too that would remind me of her also! Love what you did!!

    ~Morgan

    Meet Virginia!
    Meet Virginia!
    Meet Virginia!

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  15. Your dress turned out so cute. I love the alterations you made to the original pattern. Makes me anxious to do some summer sewing for myself!

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  16. very nice! Don't you love when you're one step ahead of a trend?

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  17. Very cute dress! And that's convenient, that you can't decide whether it's blue or black. That way you have more shoes to combine with :-)

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  18. Anonymous5/01/2010

    Wow. You're lucky that you don't live close to me because this might get stolen. By someone. Not me.

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  19. This is stunning! Question - do you think it would be possible to use the bodice part of Macaron from Colette Patterns to make a similar style dress? I was thinking I could use the pattern for the top part and then just add a gathered skirt. I love this style!

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  20. Hi Kat!
    You can always add a gathered skirt to any dress pattern, as long as you get the waist at the right place, which you would with the Macaron because it already has a natural waistband. I think you'd have to be really careful about using the midrif/bodice part as a dress on its own, since it probably fits way looser than a strapless dress should. If you measure as you cut, you probably could get it right, but it's tricky and might not fit right. There are a few other tube dress patterns out there, Simplicity has one in the formal section, I recommend buying one of those and adding the skirt you want!

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