This is the dress I made last year for the Fourth of July. It’s the Popover Dress from Gertie’s Gertie Sews Jiffy Dresses book. The belt is a Malco Modes belt, super stretchy and very comfy. The fabric is some glittery fireworks fabric I got from Joann’s at a pretty big discount because I made it close to the 4th last year.
Of course, I diverted a bit from the pattern in the book. Here’s what I changed:
- I added a ruffle to the bottom. Two reasons: First, ruffles are awesome. I would put them on everything if I could. Second, the fabric I was using was 45” and somewhat directional (the little fireworks are all falling down) and I wanted to cut it on the fold to avoid a seam down the center. This meant that I couldn’t switch it to cut on the crossgrain which would have been wide enough. Since I was cutting it on the grain and only going 45” at the widest point, this meant that the skirt ended up a bit on the short side (more beach, less bbq). The ruffle gave me an extra 6 or 7 inches as well as some body which was perfect.
- Instead of a facing, I did bias binding on the neck. I tend to find facings annoying. They often flip up and do things that bother me. More importantly for this dress, I wanted the pop of red to bring out the whole “red, white, and blue” thing along with the white belt. I really like the light, easy feel the bias binding resulted in.
- I made the smallest size even though I measure a 4 or 6 and altered the angle of the shoulders based on my moulage because I tend to run smaller in the shoulders. Even here, you can see the shoulders go all the way out to my shoulder point. There’s still plenty of room on top, giving the blouse-y effect so I feel good about this decision.
This is a super fast and easy pattern. I’ve since made it with the facing as well and I prefer the bias binding so if I make it again, I’ll do that. I actually do have a white petticoat to wear with this (also Malco Modes), but it was hot when we were going for dinner so I opted to skip. But this dress does look super cute with a petticoat. As it is, it’s a fun easy wear that I look forward to using often.
Nice!!