It was the first beautiful day of the year. I was going out for dinner with some friends that night. While thinking about what I wanted to wear that evening, I came to the conclusion that I did not have a nice and easy to wear short dress! While preparing myself some breakfast, the idea of wearing a summer dress kept racing through my mind… I had the day off, nothing planned, a freshly bought fabric staring at me, and a pattern ready to use! Understand this, I suddenly had to make a dress that day!

I used the same pattern as for my third Knipster outfit: the romantic navy lace dress. This time though, I adjusted the neckline to be lower and V-shaped. To know how much I needed to adjust the pattern I measured the distance from my ‘’incisura jugularis sternica’’ (I once studied physical therapy for a short while haha, it’s the dimple in the front middle of the neck) to the desired neckline height. That was the place the V would have to be.

Additionally, I again adjusted the length of the dress. At first I thought the shortened length of the blue dress would be too short, but when trying on the pink one I decided to shorten it by 10 cm. It just looks so much better now, because my legs seem to otherwise totally disappear!

The dress was finished just before I had to leave for my dinner appointment. Luckily it was only a walking distance away from home, so that stretched my sewing time to a maximum. That night I wore my brand new summer dress with pride, and had a nice time out with my friends! I loved the dress, but somewhere deep inside I felt it was still lacking something. I had thought of adding a contrast fabric to the neckline and armholes, but had not found anything matching in my stash…

The next morning I woke up I finally realizing what to do: adding a striped ribbon to the side seams would spice it right up! A super fashionable and easy upgrade! So first thing that afternoon I went to the local market and picked up a nice striped ribbon. I had some trouble applying it, but I’ll tell you more about that in this blog, so I can provide some tips and tricks.

So now, after only one day (and a bit;)) of sewing, I have a nice, uncomplicated, modern summer dress! And even though I feel it looks better standing up than sitting down, I just looove it! Give me plenty of nice sultry summer nights please!

Pictures by Wilco Born, taken in Tuscany, Italy

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