Sunshine, Daisies, Bottom Mellow: A Mommy Dress Tutorial

Since I made Evie a new fabulous dress for her party (tutorial to come) I thought it only fitting I make one for myself. My inspiration as always came from Anthropology (love their stuff hate their prices ergggg) and my addiction for the color combination of yellow and grey. (Keep in mind my lovely model is a good 4 inches taller then me ha!)

To further help direct me in designing a new dress I have been talking with Shannon from Luv in the Mommyhood, she is so awesome, the type of mommy you can be yourself around and not worry if an "I almost lost it yesterday" slips into the conversation because guaranteed she has a hilarious story to top yours! I about fell off my chair giggling when she did a post about someone going potty on her couch. I have been blog stalking her for it seems like forever and finally got up the courage to contact her when I started No Mans Land. She was sooooo sweet and patient with me walking me through the whole process of being "featured" (I just got chills) on Luv in the Mommyhood. I love these amazing blogs who are willing to take time to spotlight a newbie who has no real idea what she is doing ha! After kicking around a few ideas she requested a dress that us post baby mommies could wear to hide that oh so awesome mommy muffin that hangs around so rudely post baby (yes Evie is a year and mine has not disappeared ugh). I happen to be going to the second hand (or twelfth hand) market that afternoon and found a "vintage" grey striped mens shirt. I decided to use the fabric for a much better purpose! I had some yellow fabric I had picked up a few weeks ago and when I laid them next to each other I was in love! So without further ado the Sunshine, Daisies Bottom Mellow Dress.

What you need:

BMellow pattern found HERE

Half a yard fabric for the top

3/4 yard fabric for the bottom

One Button

Sewing Machine

Scissors

Straight Pins

I must apologize profusely for the first pictures. I messed up a tad so for the first step make sure to read the step not just look at the picture.

Print out and cut out all your pattern pieces. Make sure to cut the "skirt" portion of your dress to be as long as you like. Also this is made to have pleats, if you don't like pleats or REALLY like pleats increase or decrease the width to your liking. Now take both your front bodice pieces and your bodice support pieces. Lay down the bodice piece right side facing you. Align the bodice support right side DOWN with the center of the bodice piece (the center of the dress). Sew JUST up the middle to attach them to each other. Now flip the bodice around so that wrong sides are facing each other and topstitch what you just sewed.

(DO NOT sew the top like you see in this picture, I had to unpick it all later ha!)

Repeat on other bodice piece. Now take your back bodice piece and we are going to attach the two front bodice pieces to it at the shoulder. (Don't mind that my stripe fabric is crazy old and thus frays like there is no tomorrow)

(See how I had to unpick what I had done, so silly of me) Now take your two collar pieces and place them right sides together (I am really into big collars so if you want to tone this one down that is understandable) Starting at the left corner sew up, all the way across and down leaving the longest side raw. Flip the collar out so right sides are facing you and topstitch what you just sewed, folding over the little bit at the end.

Now we are going to attach the sleeve. Go a head and hem it up to your liking. Now gather a little bit at the top just enough to give it some shape :) Now pin right sides together sleeve to dress

Sew acros making sure to back and forth and make it nice and sturdy. (You have to pull this dress off over your head and it seems like this part takes a beating) Repeat on the other side. Ohhh it is shaping up nicely!

Now for the super easy part. Grab your skirt bottom and fold it in half. Lay it right next to your bodice. Now we are going to make little pleats on both sides until it match's up with the bodice.

Now you are going to attach it to the bodice. Place right sides together and pin if you like. For the center of the bodice make the front portion where they meet overlap ever so slightly. Sew around either serging or zig zagging after you straight stitch. Flip the whole dress right side out and topstitch over what you just sewed. At this point you can attach a button where the bodice meets or just leave it plain. You are so close! All you have to do now is hem up the arm holes

Now hem it up the bottom to your liking! You are all done!

Now go strut your stuff. No one will ever notice you don't have abs of steel! I can't wait to wear mine to Evie's party.

Cheers!

Kelly

PS that Fedora was a present for my B-day a few weeks back from my girlfriends here in Dili. I am trying to work up the courage to wear it at the party, I think I can I think I can ha!