What? Another dress, Meream? Yes. Because, as I implied in my last post, I have been slowly questioning my previous propensity for sewing short dresses and skirts.

This was the inspiration. Or Pinboard, if you will:

pretty fabrics from a local store | a Modcloth dress | dotted mint fabric I got on sale and a drawing of the dress I planned to sew

While the boyfriend entertained his guests (he had a PS3 party) last Saturday, I stayed holed up in my studio and started sewing the dress. The goal, if it’s not too obvious from my shoddy drawing, was to sew a dress with just the right amount of whimsy; to create a look that is 29-year-old-appropriate, if there is such a thing. While I LOVE the Modcloth dress above, I thought it looked too young for someone my age. I did, however, still wanted a few cute elements from it so I went for the shirred bottom.

The next morning, I was right on track. The belt is not part of the dress, by the way. I was just playing with the ways that I can style the dress.

After this point, I took a sewing break by turning an old dress into a skirt. (A sewing break in the form of sewing? Yes, my life is THAT boring). After I reconstructed the old dress, I realized that I could sew the straps of said dress as a permanent belt for the dotted mint piece. In the process of pinning the strap and playing around with the possible placement, I took out my stash of ribbons and trims and saw this doily-like scalloped satin ribbon.

My dress had an existential crisis and asked, “To twee or not to twee?” My initial plan was to sew a grown-up dress. To avoid making something that would meet Zoeey Deschanel’s approval. The fabric was twee enough, as you can see.

However, there are some pairings that are meant to be. No matter how hard you resist on the grounds of style preference, scalloped ribbon and dotted mint fabric are destined to be together.

And so I twee-ed.

I like it. It makes me smile.