Project of the Year

Last year I watched a fabulous sewer named Leanne Barlow make a gown each month. She designed and draped and sewed them all. She bought accessories and gorgeous shoes to go with all of them. You can check it all out on her blog and follow her on Instagram if you love that kind of stuff.

The whole time I was watching her I was thinking of doing something similar but I wasn’t sure exactly what. Sewing formal gowns was attractive to me but then I’d have to wear them for teaching or to church which might be weird.

I thought about Disney Bounds because I love Disney, as you probably know. A Disney Bound is when you dress to resemble a Disney character but not exactly as they are dressed. But then I saw that another fantastic sewer that I follow is doing that and so… You can follow her also on Instagram. Her name is Tabitha Sewer. Yes, that’s her real name. Here is the link to her website too.

I thought about sequins. I love sequins. But I also couldn’t get a clear vision for where I would go with that. Sequins are definitely on the list for a future year long project.

Then it came to me. I bought a pattern from Charm Patterns called the Night and Day Dress. The pattern includes so many options that when combined and recombined you could possibly make 72 different dresses. So, that’s what is going to be my year long project. Every month I will do a different version of the Night and Day Dress using seasonal appropriate fabrics. I also have big plans to accessorize them well.

The first one is going to be March. So my year of Night and Day Dresses will run from March 2019 through February 2020. I have already started making a spreadsheet with plans for which pattern pieces to use and what fabrics, color schemes and fabric supplier I’ll use.

I wanted to start with a fabric that isn’t very precious or expensive while I work on fit. JoAnn Fabrics currently has all of their St Patrick’s Day prints on sale for 40% off and I also had an addition 20% off coupon and here’s what I came up with.

The clovers will be the bodice and sleeves with the plaid as the skirt.

I’m excited to do this project. In the end I will have 12 very different dresses all made from the same pattern. I’ll hope you’ll follow along. I’ll be posting lots on Instagram about it and talking about any new tips I learn which I know will come from repeating similar techniques over and over. I also plan on incorporating some hand sewing and couture techniques into these dresses to make them extra special.

Another thing to watch is my new Etsy Shop. I’m up and running and I will be adding lots of new skirts from different fabrics and patterns that I am excited to sew especially for you to your measurements.