Start your sewing adventure with us.    Join Seamwork

Articles on this site were all published prior to 2017 and this site is no longer updated. Please visit our current Articles, Patterns, and Classes for the most up-to-date content and products.

Spring Palette Challenge Week Nine

I’m a little bit behind on my Spring Palette Challenge. I took a detour from it last week to work on a special sewing project that I’ll be telling you more about this week. But on Sunday I finally had a chance to get some photos of me in my new Daisy Dress!

The fabric is a linen and silk blend, which means it does wrinkle, but I think (or hope) the look is delightfully rumpled and linen-y. It’s sheer but stiff, and looks rather like organza at a distance. I lined it with plain yellow cotton. The daisy trim is vintage.

I created an insertion of the daisies towards the hem of the skirt, then cut apart the trim and sewed the individual daisies onto the collar flounce. I feel absolutely ready for Spring now.

The only thing I regret about this dress is that I sewed the flounce into the center back zipper. It looks neat and pretty that way, but I realized only afterwards that I can’t wear a cardigan with it and have the flounce over the cardigan. I should have made it more like a collar. Oh well, live and learn!

I love the shape of the flounce. It’s not so ruffly that it looks ridiculous, but it is definitely feminine and the perfect length.

And here’s the skirt insertion. This took a fair bit of hand basting, but I love the result.

The last thing I have to make for my challenge is some shorts! I’m not sweating it, though. If it’s not done this week, I’ll just have to file an extension on this one.

Sarai Mitnick

Founder

Sarai started Colette back in 2009. She believes the primary role of a business should be to help people. She loves good books, sewing with wool, her charming cats, working in her garden, and eating salsa.

Comments

Sue Culotti

March 22, 2011 #

Adorable dress, and I love the insert of that fun vintage trim (which I also possess a bit of)! I’m a bit behind in the whole “spring palette” thing, but we’ve still got snow in our forecast this week, so I’m not fretting too much yet… Thanks for the ongoing inspiration, though!

ladykatza

March 22, 2011 #

That is LOVELY! Could you do a tutorial on how to do the insertion? I have a dress idea for some 100 year old chemical lace I want to use.

Sarah

March 22, 2011 #

So pretty!!! I have dress envy! :)

Brittan

March 22, 2011 #

great job! This is such a pretty dress; the epitome of spring!

Ashley

March 22, 2011 #

Very nice, love the flowers!

Karen

March 22, 2011 #

That dress is the very definition of spring!

lizajane

March 22, 2011 #

So pretty! I LOVE the lace at the hem. That is such a neat feature.

Hillary

March 22, 2011 #

This is so pretty- that flounce is so unusual and lovely!

And yes- extensions for Spring Challenge all around!!

kittee

March 22, 2011 #

i love this so very much. now i know what a flounce is, too!
xo
kittee

Stacie

March 22, 2011 #

I love the daisies. I’m fairly new to this, and you have my imagination racing. I need daisies stat!

MB @YarnU iPhoneapp v1.2

March 24, 2011 #

It’s quite possible that Wash-away Solvy (my solution to nearly all sewing challenges) could make the insertion easier. Make your Solvy sandwich – solvy top, fabric and lace in the middle, solvy bottom. Trim, turn over raw edges and sew raw edges. Sew Solvy sandwich.

Mel

March 30, 2011 #

This dress is divine!
Please, please, please do a tutorial (or at least give a few hints) on how to do that daisy insertion. I have a piece of brown linen just begging to be a skirt with this sort of insert.
Mel
xx

Shannon Bellwood

January 31, 2012 #

Hello I am a student and I am designing a skirt with daisies on them. The daisies on this dress are perfect for my skirt and I was woundering were you got them from. I would really appreciate it if you could tell me this. Thankyou.