Two more knit dresses.

When I showed you my Pucci Swirls dress a couple weeks ago, I mentioned that it was my practice run for a couple dresses I wanted to make for the spring.  Last week I made them both up on the same day, production-line style. 

I learned my lesson from the Pucci Swirls dress re: having the print straight at the hem as well as meeting at the sides.  So this time, before I even got started, I traced the front and back pieces again then taped them along the center to the original pieces to get a full pattern piece.  I'm glad I decided to do it that way instead of flipping the half piece:  it allowed me to see exactly what the whole front or back would look like.  I have a little bit of trouble visualizing that from just a half piece.

These two dresses were made from fabrics I bought on sale at Girl Charlee in the fall.  All winter, I daydreamed about making them up and wearing them in the spring.  But our winter was longer than usual, and I wasn't able to get enthused about actually making them until last week.  I'm so glad I got them done though, because now it's full-on spring, and I'm wearing dress #1 today!

Neon stripes!  Yowza!  When I bought these sandals, I thought they were really bright orange - but they pale next to the insanely bright orange in this dress!

You can see that I got the hem in line with the stripe, but it wasn't easy - the fabric was a little skewed.  Also, the hemline of this dress is slightly curved, which makes things a little harder with stripes! I made sure to match the stripes at the side seams:

And did the zigzag hem again:

The only problem I had is that as I was getting ready to put on my neck binding, I discovered a tiny hole in the fabric in the upper back :-(  This has happened to me more than once with knit fabrics.  Fortunately, the hole was quite small, so I popped on some fusible tricot inside.  I'm hoping it holds - I'd really hate for this dress to get ruined quickly.  These colors make me happy.

I saved the best for last.  Here is my new favorite dress for spring:

I. Love. This. Dress.  This is my #1 favorite fabric I have ever bought from Girl Charlee.  Stripes AND flowers - what's not to love?!  This one is also on the heavier side, so this dress feels a little more substantial than the others.

These stripes are so irregular that I didn't even bother trying to match them at the sides:

But I don't think it takes away from the dress.  There's a lot going on here!  When I bought the fabric, I thought the stripes were navy, but I think they're actually black.  I don't mind though - that expands the possibilities of things to wear with the dress.

I love this pattern so much, and I'm finding myself reaching for these dresses when I get dressed.  I'm planning on going through my shrinking stash to see if I have anything appropriate for another.  But first I've got some gift sewing to do :-)