Adventures in Non-Quilting

This past Saturday I had the pleasure of attending a dress making class at Nido Fabric Shop in Burlington, VT.  My friend Megan and I decided to sign up for a class together.  We ultimately decided to try the Laurel Dress by Colette Patterns.  The site says this about the dress:

This chic and simple shift dress is easy to sew, astoundingly versatile, and comfortable to wear year-round.

I decided to go with a simple red-orange quilters linen by Robert Kaufman and a pretty red and white cross hatch for the bias tape edges.

This was my first attempt at sewing clothing so I was really nervous to start cutting the pattern and fabrics but eventually sucked it up and dove in.  It was simpler than I thought and the pattern was really simple to cut which really helped.

time to dive in!

laying out the pattern pieces before class

We sewed non-stop from 9am to 2pm and both had nearly completed dresses!  It was great leaving with an almost ready-to-wear dress!  Megan used a beautiful vintage-esque Liberty of London print.

Megan was all smiles!

sewing the final seam on my dress

I was so excited that I had to try it on before we left the shop.  I need to take it in a bit around the waist to make it a little more fitted/flattering and then finish sewing on the bias tape at the neck and hem the bottom.  But I'm so excited to get to wear my finished dress!  I think when I made it again I will shorten the sleeves just a bit and enlarge the neck line to be more of a scoop neck than a crew neck (I just feel that it's more flattering on my body type).  But I couldn't be happier with my first attempt at three-dimensional sewing!

my nearly complete dress

Happy Quilting!