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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!

Two dresses, one pattern--last summer's success


Last summer I was inspired by I Love You, Man and the darling outfits Rashida Jones wears--I've blogged about them before!--and I really wanted to copy a cute sheath dress she wears.  Navy, yoked, with wide white lace down the center and cap sleeves.  This is the best screen shot I could find, unfortunately, so you'll have to watch the movie!
Anyway I searched and searched for a pattern that would make something similar, and the best I could find was my variation on the dress from Simplicity 2896.
I made the dress, but used the exact sleeves from the cap sleeve jacket--they fit the armholes.  I used a textured cotton in off-navy from JoAnn's that was on clearance in several colors.  It didn't need a lining, just the facing at the neck.  Here I am wearing the dress while setting up at a party last summer:
It's so fun and simple, and I feel so cute wearing it!  I love easy cute outfits like this dress--just throw it on and you're dressed.  I tried it on to take another pic of it and remembered, I looove this dress!
I made another version from the same pattern a month or so later (I know it's a simple style, but this one fit so well!), but I wanted a different neckline, so I did some combination of the dress minus the gathers plus the yoke piece so the front is all one piece... whatever, I ended up with this:
And of course I put vertical trim down the front, this time some vintage ric rac I had lying around.  I think I was sort of stuck in the mindset of the center front trim since that's what the blue dress had.
It's great to use the same pattern twice--you only have to cut out the paper once, and you know if it fits you once you make the first version!
So I know they're not recent, but there are some of my cute-and-easy dresses from last summer (that blue one I think of as a particular success).  Wonder what my faves will be this summer...?

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