Summer’s Last Hurrah

I love sewing for summer! I love sewing for Halloween, and Christmas, and vacations, and visit to Disneyland, etc… as well, but that’s beside the point. Every year, I get fired up in spring to sew dresses without sleeves in bright colors.

This was my very last summer dress this year— it’s one I’d had on my mind for months, but didn’t get around to making until the last minute! I finished it right as we went into a record-breaking September heat wave. I’d intended it for Labor Day, but wound up hiding indoors and monitoring our power usage over Labor Day weekend instead of enjoying time outside soaking up the sun as I’d intended.

Oh well, I still got to make this sunny yellow dress, and now it’s patiently waiting in my closet for a picnic or backyard barbecue.

The dress pattern is one of my warm-weather favorites, Butterick B4792 from their Retro line. It’s a discontinued style, but I found my copy on eBay. I added darts to the bodice, and re-drafted the top so I could cut a separate lining; as designed, the lining and bodice are cut as one so you fold it at the neckline to form the lining and outer. It’s a clever design, but winds up wasting quite a bit of fashion fabric.

…

-Dress Pattern is Butterick B4792
-Fabric is from Paintbrush Studio’s BBQ Block Party collection
-Belt is from Amazon
-Bangles are by Splendette
-Earrings are Betsey Johnson
-Shoes are Torrid
-Headband is from Shein (here is a similar one from Amazon)