About a month ago, as I was preparing for our annual homeschooler camping trip, I realized that I didn’t have a single linen dress to wear by the campfire — so naturally I stayed up late into the night to sew one. Instead of doing practical things, like packing. Or sleeping.
Personally, I feel like this is progress for me. Last year I spent the day before our camping trip baking all of our hot dog buns from scratch, but this year I just bought them at the store like the rest of humanity. And I even left my feta cheese at home after a quick lecture from my dad over Twitter:
Sorry there’s no way a real camper would bring feta. Cheddar sure. Mozza maybe, feta no. Turn in your tent.
Whoa, he’s tough. Good thing I didn’t consult him on my wardrobe.
Practicality (or lack thereof) aside, I am delighted with the dress. It turned out so well, by far my favourite thing I’ve ever sewed. I used a navy blue linen that I bought at 50% off at Fabricland (still $20/m – gulp!) and I chose the very simple Wiksten tank pattern in the “dress” length after seeing some gorgeous pictures of it on Pinterest (you can find some of them on this board).
My fellow mediocre sewers, listen up: this pattern was so, so easy to do. It also taught me how to sew french seams which are both easy and elegant and now I feel like I might never use my serger again.
I only needed to cut out five pieces — six if you choose to include the small pocket — and then stitch the dress together. The pattern was so simple that I was able to raise the neckline and take in the sides for a better fit — no small feat for a beginner. Everything came together so beautifully and I was determined to finish it in time for our trip. As I worked the neckline at about 1:00am, I marvelled at the simple beauty of a plain linen dress, and then I realized that I’ve officially turned into my mother.
Huh.
Even so, I loved that tank. Not too tight but not too baggy. Just the right length for leggings and jeans. The dress made me feel pretty. I wore it over and over and over for the next two weeks.
And then I threw it away.
Not on purpose, mind you. Actually, I have no proof that I threw the dress away, beyond the fact that it’s not anywhere in my house. It’s also possible that I donated the dress to charity during one of my crazy purges — I’ve had a lot of those this month. There’s also a good chance that my one-year-old “helped” me by sticking the dress in the trash, just like he keeps “cleaning” my phone right into in the recycling bin. All I know for sure is that my dress is gone.
Once I passed through all seven stages of grief, I decided to make another one — except this one is bright pink instead of navy blue. It’s not a colour I usually buy but it was on sale for about $6 or $7 per metre — and when linen is 80% off, you buy it all and maybe a bottle of fabric dye. Turned out nice, didn’t it?
This time I made the dress in a smaller size, though I still found the neckline too low and ended up resewing the straps to bring it up a bit. And then, because I needed to find away to camouflage the blinding pink colour, I added some epic pockets to the sides. I don’t know about you, but I don’t even see pink anymore. I just see awesome pockets.
I saw this meme on both Twitter and Facebook a month or two ago:
Me: *wears a dress that has pockets*
Person: “I like your dress”
Me: “thanks, it has pockets!!!”
It’s funny because it’s true.
I’m so excited to make a few more and literally double my summer wardrobe. My next Wiksten will be in black linen and I’ll probably do it a size bigger again so that I can layer it over shirts in the fall and winter. I’d also like to do one with more of a racer back — I have a beautiful robin’s egg blue linen that will look hideous on me, but the colour is oh-so-pretty that I’m going to use it anyway. Oh, and I’ve got the most gorgeous lightweight cotton that’s been stashed away in my dresser for a year that would work perfectly – maybe with a bit of an elastic waistline added?
Hopefully I can knock off a few this week. Maybe I need to book another camping trip for motivation.
This post has been shared on the following link-ups:
The Art of Home-Making Mondays • Monday’s Musings • Making Your Home Sing Monday
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