Be it February, we miiight be a bit behind on the making and blogging. January went by with lots of doctor visits for both my daughter and husband who took turns each week getting sick. Thankfully, I came out the other side unscathed!
Christmas is a special time for our family as with most. The lights, the festive feeling, the birth of Christ. Special times call for special outfits.
On more than one visit to Joann’s I saw this maroon and gold fabric that I was in love with. I didn’t have a plan for it, and it cost more that I wanted to pay for an unplanned fabric so I would walk by and leave it at the store. I usually check the remnants section each time to see if there are any hidden gems in there, and what did I find one day? The fabric I wanted and it was 70% off! I picked it up before anyone else could take it and thought I will FIGURE out what to make from it later.
Being a remnant, there wasn’t much, close to a yard of the fabric. I tossed it in the wash with my other fabrics. All fabrics that need pre-wash get pre-washed before storing now, that way I am not second guessing myself if I did or not.
Weeeell, it came out not so nice looking. The maroon waffle part separated from the glittery knit fabric underneath. I was able to salvage some of it by giving it a good press but a lot of the fabric didn’t line up well so it looked weird (see the picture below).
The original plan was to make a Sansahash Nilah dress from this fabric but I didn’t think it would look nice with the offset fabric. But parts of it could be salvaged so I made the bodice using Nilah dress pattern. Which of course led to having trouble picking out a bottom fabric that would go well. I had another maroon/glitter fabric where the glitter made outlines of leaves and flowers. The color matched well but the patterns together looked to busy. I tried a few different color options.
The dark blue won, which was good since I had used an old dark blue t-shirt to line the inside. The skirt bottom was constructed using two front pieces of the E-Beth Lorelei dress pattern. The original pattern is for wovens with a back zipper and I didn’t need that here.
Still feeling it was missing something, I added a hem border using the maroon fabric.
Most of the construction was done using my serger. However, not wanting topstitching to show, I did a blind hem on both bottom and sleeves. I found that it had just enough stretch so I may be using that option in the future! Accidental finds are great!
Oh and I made sure to add inseam pockets for my pocket loving daughter.
Pattern Info:
Pattern Name: Nilah by Sansahash and Lorelei Dress by EBeth Designs
Size: Bodice: 18m waist blended with 3T height; Skirt: 3T waist with 8 height
Modifications: Merged two patterns, added inseam pockets
Would I recommend it? Absolutely! Still love both patterns as this is the 3rd make for both of them.