Made myself a dress

I had booked the 3 days before my wedding off work because it just seemed like a good idea. Then the days off arrived, and shockingly I was ready for the wedding. I am not sure I'd ever been so organized in my entire life. I decided I needed a craft to keep myself busy!  I had seen this tutorial a few weeks before and loved the idea of combining a tank top and some fabric to make a summer dress. I figured not only would it be an easy project to try out, if it worked out I'd also have a fun new dress to wear on my honeymoon.

I used a Joe Fresh tank top that cost $6 and I think the fabric was about $6 also with my Fabricland membership.  And it all worked out just great:

Unfortunately I'm all squinty faced with the sun in my eyes -but this tree in our yard only blooms for about 4 or 5 days a year, so I thought I better take advantage of the photo opp!

For those of you interested in the sewing details - the tutorial is easy to follow. It took me a few (3!) tries to get the length of the tank top and the fabric to look the way I wanted it. And I was also a bit fussy about properly distributing the gathered stitches - I wanted it to look even. In this photo you may not be able to tell I am wearing a black belt with it - the tutorial suggests using the patterned fabric to make a belt but I thought it would be easier to make the "belt" portion out of the bottom of the tank top. I did not attach it to the dress, just pull it on over top when I wear it. You could also wear with a store-bought wide belt - and that might give the dress a more polished look.   Although the length of the dress looks okay here, I find it a bit short for sitting/bending over so have started wearing tights/leggins with it since this photo was taken. 

Not bad for my first time sewing an actual article of clothing for myself!