Happy August to all!  July has come and gone and now I’m a year older.

Last month I decided to sew myself a birthday dress to commemorate my 21st birthday over a week ago and let me tell you, there was such a big hiccup that it ended up becoming a skirt!

And since last week I finally had the opportunity to go to a lavender field (so so beautiful and calm) I had had the “photoshoot” for the skirt there.

Although the dress did not go as planned I love the skirt. It’s one of my favorite colors and I learned how to use a hemming sewing foot that made my life so much easier!

Sewing My Birthday Skirt (plus a visit to a lavender field!)

This is the second year in the row that I make a dress to wear to my birthday celebrations and just like last year’s, it did not go as planned (anyone surprised?). Who knows, it may become a yearly tradition to sew a birthday garment that does not work 100% as planned.

Earlier this year (before quarantine began) I shared the dress I made for my 20th birthday that took way too long to finish and finally got to wear it six months AFTER my birthday.

This year I didn’t want that to happen and so weeks before the special day I found a pattern in my stash (Burda 9888 from the 1970s), got the fabric, and finally started making it.

If you follow my Instagram stories, then you might know part of the saga that follows but here I’ll be sharing more of what happened plus how I fixed it and lots of lavender pics!

the pattern

Visiting thrift stores is one of my great loves, you never know what you’ll find and for a really good price. I’ve bought patterns from all eras in there including the one used for the dress, Burda 9888.

The pattern was in great condition considering that it was from the mid-1970s, with its billowy skirts and sleeves, this peasant dresses fit perfectly with the current style of romantic dresses, skirts, and tops which I love.

Thinking that this was the perfect summer (and birthday) dress, I decided to make design A (middle) not knowing that it would not turn out like it.

The Burda 9888 was super easy to follow and the instructions clear. Surprisingly straightforward and clear, as I’ve found some patterns that are confusing and hard to follow/understand.

The only issue I had was that there was quite a difference between my sizing and that of the pattern.  It’s often is easy to forget that body styles/shapes change throughout time (see the 1920s, 1960s etc), thankfully since it was a loose design and had an elastic waist I thought not much of it and just did the largest size which would prove wrong.

related post: Linen Summer Shorts | Pattern Review

the fabric

The first problem I encountered was the fabric.

In my fabric stash, I had found a beautiful blue gingham-like fabric with daisies on it, very lightweight and oh so pretty, it was perfect (see the picture of the pattern above). Unfortunately, I only had about 1.5 meters which meant that with the pattern I had chosen I had not enough material.

Thankfully, after searching and searching, I found a really nice purple/pink (Fuschia maybe) material that was about 3 meters long. One of my favorite colors and fairly easy to sew with, as it does not unravel or move that much while sewing.  I also got this fabric probably at a thrift store for about $4 a meter (a fantastic deal!).

the dress

Making the dress itself was fairly easy and straightforward. I did make some changes to the skirt panels as they asked for almost 3 meters total of fabric for the two layers.

Three meters!

Since it seemed like a waste of fabric (and I barely had that for the whole dress), I instead just doubled and 1.5ed (waist x 1.5)  my waist measurements and ended up using about 1.5 meters for the layers only.

Then it came time for the hemming. The skirt panels are sewn onto each other which means that top seams would be ruffled on the outside and be seen, which meant that instead of doing just one hem I had to do three.

Thankfully laziness overcame me and I tried out a different sewing foot that folds and sews down the fabric, making the cutest and tiniest hem. Saving lots of time and making it look professional. It has now become one of my favorite sewing hacks and hemming techniques.

See below for how it works.

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3.33333

related post: hair scrunchies | easy tutorial

As mentioned the dress was fairly easy to sew and I was able to finish it in about a day.

Finally, I was able to try it on.

But once I did it looked so

bulky,

frumpy,

and just bleh.

To be frank I was disappointed.

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It seemed that I did not have the curves to pull it off and with the surplus of fabric in the neckline/bust it just made me look like a kid trying on her mother’s dress. The fabric was also not lightweight and the bottom was pulling down the top making the whole thing look bad.

The bunching fabric and sizing probably made this dress unwearable for me, strange because I’ve made a dress using another 1970s pattern and it actually fit okay.

It was four days before my birthday and too late for me to start a new project. But then it dawned on me. I loved, loved the skirt part.

The ruffled/gathered layers, the hem, the color and after lots of consideration and advice, I finally settled on cutting the bottom off and making it a separate skirt.

the outcome

After cutting the top off and fixing a bit, this is what my birthday “dress” looked like:

It may not have been what I had been expecting but it looked so much better than as a dress.

Celebrating my 21st birthday with lots of cake!

the lavender fields

Originally I had planned on going during my birthday week, but it rained every. single. day.

Finally, last Friday we finally made it to the Le Maison Lavande, lavender farm/fields just a couple of days before it closed down for the season and hours before it started to rain again.

Playing around with a filter I made. Might be a tad too dark, but I love it.

I wore my new skirt, with a cute white embroidered top, my favorite platform sandals, and had a fantastic time there.

Let me tell you, it smelled wonderful and looked so beautiful and calm. A lot of people were having picnics and just enjoying the quiet atmosphere away from the big city.

I definitely recommend visiting one, if you haven’t already.

On the way there I saw a sign for an apple orchard that’s nearby, so hopefully this fall I’ll finally visit an apple orchard! So keep an eye out for that post.

The strange part about the skirt is that had I sat down to plan a tiered skirt, it likely wouldn’t have come to fruition. This feels strangely philosophical, sometimes ideas do not come out as planned but we can do our best to find the greatest solution and still have a happy ending (if that makes sense).

Overall I loved the skirt and I’ve worn it multiple times already and who knows, maybe I’ll make another one.

Now, what to do with the top I cut off.

What do you think of the skirt? Have you visited a lavender field before?

Til next time,

Loren Camila