Summer Sewing | 2021 Edition (p.s. it’s lots of dresses!)

So I forgot to share my summer sewing roundup back in September when it was still summer, but better late than ever eh!

Between May and July, I got more sewing done than in all of 2020 and 2019 combined. And by the time August came to an end, I had made well over 12 (wearable) garments!

One of the things that helped in this summer being sewing-focused is that last year I spent a lot of time building furniture, transforming spaces, or even just gardening and I did so much of that, that this year there was nothing else to build or do. (But I still did some gardening this year)

** In this post, there are some affiliated links (marked with an *) which at no extra cost to you, help support this blog**

Plus with everything open again, I thought it’d be nice to celebrate the re-opening of the world by building a new wardrobe!

This included knit shirts, skirts, a romper, and of course many many dresses for all occasions. Relax at home dress? Check! Going to the beach dress? Check! Party dress? Hmm, let me think, uh heck yeah!

So keep reading to a) see all the pictures of the garments and b) learn about how maybe you too can make your own.

What I Sewed This Summer

One of the reasons I really wanted to share this post is beacuse, if you recall, I LOVE sewing and this blog was originally made to share my sewing projects and act as a personal portfolio of sorts. And while it has evolved into a lifestyle blog, I still love to share my projects here.

Also, the last time I posted anything sewing-related was back in April when I share my 18th century stays + chemise!

And today I will be sharing with you most of the items I made during the summer of 2021. Mainly that being dresses, including a glimpse of this year’s birthday dress!

Yellow Swiss Dot Dress | VikiSews Pattern

This yellow swiss dot dress is one of the first garments I made this summer, I had always wanted to sew with Swiss dot fabric and have been itching to use the Gia pattern from Vikisews, and back in June, I got do to both!

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This dress was a very simple project and I loved working with this light, airy, and delicate-looking fabric! I got this Swiss dot fabric on sale for $3/meter and I just knew that I had to get it otherwise I’d regret it.

To make the dress I used VikiSews’ Gia and although the pattern is in Russian, I didn’t have much trouble making it as it is a simple style + design. Plus the instructions come with very helpful step-by-step photos. But when I did need to read the instructions Google Translate was my friend!

One of the changes that I made from the original was that decided to go for a gathered skirt instead of a pencil/form-fitting one.

I love how bright it is and the texture of the fabric gives it a fancier look and while not as casual as the other dresses I made, I do love how comfortable it easy and how easy it was to make!

This pattern is perfect for beginner sewists at this is an easy sewing project for beginners!

Green Poofy Sleeve Dress | Copying a $600 Dress

Back in May while browsing on Pinterest, I saw an ad for Cara Cara’s Sip Sip dress* (affiliate link) and after falling in love with it, it’s just so casual but oh so dramatic and out there that it just drew me in.

But after looking at the then $600 price tag I realized that the design was simple enough that I could recreate it.

And so I did.

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To my surprise this was much easier to make than expected, as in “how is someone selling this dress for $600 when it’s literally made of rectangles?!?” easy.

For the bodice, I used the bodice of the Gia dress pattern (the same one used for the yellow dress above) and cut the pieces to just below my bust for that empire dress bust (??). As for the skirt and sleeves, this is what I did:

a) skirt: cut one large rectangle (can be made up of two/three pieces) 1.5 times the width of my waist. Then I gathered them and sewed them the bodice. For the bottom frill, I cut a strip 2 the width of the skirt.

b) sleeves: this part was somewhat tricky, but I cut two rectangles 2 times the width of my bicep and the length desired (about 20 inches). After sewing some channels on both ends of the sleeves, I slipped in some elastic the width of my bicep and sewed it to the sides of the bodice.

Fun fact: This dress cost me $3.50 to make!

Beacuse I was worried about how it would turn out, I decided to make it out of a bed shift thrifted from Goodwill and to my surprise it worked really well. The fabric holds its structure very well which makes the skirt and sleeves look poofier than it truly is!

To think that the original was selling for $600 still boggles my mind as it is such a simple design. And I mean SIMPLE.

Plus by adding a turtleneck, the dress can be also worn in fall! It is definitely a more out there (ie out of my comfort zone) dress but I love how it makes me feel and I loved this dress so much that I made it twice! Keep reading to see the second dress!

Gingham Nap Dress

This dress was my attempt at pattern-drafting and let’s just say that it did not end up looking as expected, however, it has become one of my go-to “lounging around in the house” dresses.

In fact, it could be called a nap dress, because it is just so comfortable, loose, and light that one could even take a nap in it!

To make this dress I followed the Contour Affair‘s DIY on how to make a tiered dress sans pattern and while it was easy enough, the bodice came out way too large so I had to take it in quite a bit. Which then meant not being able to pull it over my head so a zipper had to be added and then I had to re-sew the skirt…

…fun times.

For the fabric, I used this red gingham fabric that reminded me of summer picnics and warm days. The thing with this fabric is that while lovely and light, it is somewhat sheer biker shorts that have to be worn with it which wouldn’t be an issue except that most biker shorts come in black!

But other than that, I love this dress.

While not perfect (don’t look at the side seam) it is perfect for a summer’s day out, a layer-able fall dress, and, of course, a nap dress.

Birthday Dress | Frankenpattern (full review to come)

Probably one of my favorite, construction-wise, dresses to date, my 22nd birthday dress was a mix-mash of two different patterns and so. much. gathering.

This dress (like the green one in the beginning) was inspired by a $400 dress by Agua Bendita*, a Colombian loungewear brand that makes colorful and fun garments.

I fell in love with bishop sleeves, the tiers, and the bold fun look of the dress, and as it was time to make a b-day dress I decided to take up the challenge and made it.

Was it easy? yes and not. But it was so worth the many, many hours I spent on it.

Like the heading says the full review and process of the birthday dress is to come.

But in the meantime enjoy this pic taken in Old Montreal. And if you’re interested in seeing past birthday dresses check out last year’s and my 20th birthday one!

Floral Bustier Dress (with pockets!) | Burda 112 05/2018

This dress.

What can I say except that at one point I considered throwing it the window and burning the pattern? It was that difficult.

I’ve mentioned before that I buy Russian language patterns beacuse they are cheap, as in $1.50/per pattern cheap and so when Burda Russia was having a sale I immediately bought this dress pattern that I had been eyeing.

A corset-like dress with cap sleeves, while I had never made cups/corset the dress reviews were positive and said it was easy and so I got it. I had bought this fabric on sale (3meters for the price of 1!!) and so I was excited to both make the dress and wear it. And OMG I was quickly disillusioned.

I made a mock-up and it came out blehhh. The cups were too pointy, they looked like duck lips, just all-around horrible but I still had hope. So I played around and got it to look ok and then cut the good fabric and that one came out meh. Not terrible but also not great, and after adding the skirt I wasn’t too happy with it so of into the WIP bin it went.

Then in August, I realized that since I had spent so much time making this I might as well finish it. Thus I re-added the skirt, fixed the straps, and realized that by, TMI, wearing a pushup/solid bra the pucker-ness of the cups are less noticeable.

So while it did not look like I expected it to look, I think that with the floral nature of the fabric the cups are not as notable.

Do I recommend this pattern? No, heck NO! There’s some easier bustier/corset-like pattern out there. However I do like this dress and while it may get less wear than the other garments in this post, it was still a good project to undertake and I learned that making cups is hard.

Sleeveless Flounce Top | McCall

As you can see this peplum-like top was made from leftover fabric from my bustier dress and was an easy one-day project. I used McCall ____ and I’ll be honest I didn’t like the pattern.

It is weirdly loose but tight at the bodice and the armholes are small. I had made another top using this pattern but it’s almost unwearable. Beacuse of that, I decided to make this one sleeveless since it would mean I’d have a larger range of motion and one size larger. Plus I replaced the circular peplum hem(??) for a gathered one.

So while it’s looser than expected, I do love wearing this top. It’s fun, floral, and easy, and I love that I have two garments made with the same fabric!

Blue Romper | Simplicity 1355

Like the gingham nap dress, this blue romper has to be one of my favorite “lounging around the house” or “going to the beach” garment.

It is super comfortable, cozy and love that it has large pockets!

If you recall, last summer I made some shorts and had about 1 meter left of this blue fabric and after looking in my pattern stash I came across this Simplicity 1355. A pattern I had made multiple times before, but this time decided to make the romper model.

This romper was super simple to make and besides the length, too short for my taste, it is so comfortable!! The only downside is that the fabric wrinkles so badly, so please ignore that 😅

I definitely recommend this pattern to new sewists or anyone looking for a quick fun jumpsuit. A cute and easy sewing project for beginners and advanced sewest alike

Gingham Button Up Skirt

This skirt was a one-afternoon I’m bored type of project.

Made out of two rectangles, some home decor fabric, and buttons from the 80s the Gingham skirt took about 2.5hours and thought it was worth sharing mainly beacuse it was so simple to make and I’ve been wanting to sew one for years.

Not the best picture, but I love it beacuse it looks very vintage-y!

Pink Off the Shoulder Dress

This was one of my last makes of the season, almost a “goodby summer” type of dress. I mentioned that I loved my copy of the very expensive dress so I made it twice and here it is!

The pink version was made with a very light linen-like material that was super easy to sew with. This dress was made much quicker than the green one as I knew what to do and how to prevent mistakes. Plus I didn’t have enough for the bottom frill so that meant that it also looked a bit different.

final thoughts

I still can’t believe I made so many garments during such a short period of time. Some of them were easy to make other’s make, others made me want to pull my hair, and finally, some were just so quick that I was able to finish in less than 3 hours!

As for the other not-shown garments, I made knit tops, a couple of 1960s wiggle dresses, and some cardigans. They were cute but not as memorable as these ones!

This summer was amazing, sewing-wise, and honestly, I’m shocked and proud of myself. Never would I had thought that I’d sew so many things in such a short time.

Til next month (can’t believe it’ll be November already!)

Loren Camila