The Harvest Dress

Remember my Waterspout dress? I had drafted the pattern myself--a circle skirt with a simple bodice. However, I never made a final version of the pattern on paper, so when I tried to make it again, I got a little frustrated. I got it to work, though, and turned it into the perfect fall dress! I did make this version a little bit longer than the first one, however, since it's not for the beach.

Front of the dress (I will get a functional
real camera for Christmas, I swear) 

Back of the dress

I wore this dress the day I picked up the last week of my CSA. I'll post the second half of my CSA goodies soon (10 weeks) as well as some more recipes to go along with it. This dress was the perfect way to wrap up a season of great harvests!

Picking up my last CSA of the summer!

I made a stupid mistake when cutting, though--I folded the fabric wrong to cut the circle of the circle skirt, so I cut off a piece of fabric incorrectly and didn't have enough to make the skirt lining. Big problem on a circle skirt that likes to fly up! I made the lining out of some black cotton I had used to line my polka dot dress. There wasn't a piece wide enough, however, so I stitched together three pieces using french seams.

The inside of the dress (black skirt lining)

Inside of the dress, zoomed in on the zipper

French seams to link together panels of the skirt lining

Originally, the straps opened the front up too much, so they fit more off the shoulder. This didn't work for me because the straps kept moving in and making the neckline gape. I sewed tiny pleats in the final product (through both the dress and the lining) to fix this problem, and I noted it on the pattern this time.

The fixed neckline--no more gaping

Zoomed in neckline--if you look closely,
you'll see the little pleats