Picnic dress!

Picnic dress!

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• 4.11.2012

Oooooh, I'm excited about this one.  My new fave dress!  Now I'm totally ready for an early summer picnic.

You'll get the vibe immediately when I show it to you, but... we're channeling Zooey Deschanel, New Girl, ModCloth...

I don't know if that selection of pics conveys my meaning right.  It's an early 60's retro feel that's totally wearable for every day if you decide it should be-- wear it with flats, maybe?  I am SO excited to wear this this summer.

It all started with a sale at JoAnn.  I don't normally impulse-buy fabric, but this was 50% off the regular price of $4.99 a yard.  It's one of the signature JoAnn quilting prints.  Super cheap, some bright, cute colors... I loved this blue and white picnic gingham check print, and just went for it.  The dress cost me less than $4 for a yard and a half!  Normally I never use quilting fabric for clothing because it's too stiff, scratchy, and coarsely woven, but for this it worked out great.  I used a solid white quilting cotton for the lining, and the two went together like a dream.  The whole thing took me only a few hours.

I used Simplicity 2444, of course, for the bodice, and did a regular gathered skirt of two panels for extra fullness and fun.

Ta-da!

I know it's sorta plain, with no trim or anything, but I kinda like it that way.  It's simple and sweet!  And I can dress it up with a cardi or something over it.  And maybe the plainness makes it more wearable for 2012!  Like Zooey has taught us, you can wear a natural-waisted, full-skirted dress with flats and a cross-body bag if you want to be casual!