Instant Sewing Gratification

As I'm sure you can understand, I'm about sick to death of the Burda Bubble-less Dress. By Sunday afternoon, I had had enough of it, but I still wanted to sew, so I pulled out some stash fabric and a stash pattern and made this, McCalls 5797:
It's a cute, super simple, super comfy summer dress. I made the view with the contrast hem band and used the extra long neck tie so the Princess could have a bow on her shoulder.

I sort of have a love/hate relationship with McCall's kids' patterns. On the one hand, they have some really cute things. On the other hand, some of their patterns are what I call "super fiddly," meaning difficult and fussy to put together. In fact, I just threw one in the trash last weekend when it was almost completely done. That's the second time I've thrown up my hands and just cut my losses with McCalls.

This pattern, however, is super easy to put together and I highly recommend it if you want a really simple, cool summer dress. We were kind of in a hurry to get the pictures, so I didn't arrange the neck tie very well. The dress slides freely on the tie. Once we arrange it "just so," I'll tack the edges of the casing to the tie, so it can't slide around anymore.

I used this super-cute fish fabric that I got at Hancock Fabrics several years ago. What could be more summery? I chose the orange stripe, which I purchased at JoAnn's, for the contrast. The lace, also from Hancock's (I think), is topstitched on along the seamline. I'm still debating putting a strip of baby rick rick along the header. I don't have a good color in stash, and honestly, it looks fine as is, so I might just forget it.

The Princess likes the dress. She says I can make more. It is just a tad short, but I like it that way for summer, so I'm going to use the orange fabric and make a simple pair of elastic waist shorts to go under it.

Here's a shot of the Princess with Lily, one of our new kittens. Lily is less than thrilled about the new dress.

I have not given up on the Burda dress. I just needed a break. I already attached the sleeves and all I really have left to do is the lining. I'm thinking I will line the skirt with something slippery since the wide neckline will prevent me from wearing my favorite slip under it.

Hopefully I'll have finished photos this weekend. Or maybe photos of another one of these easy little dresses. I'm still kind of sick of the Burda Dress!