I am particularly excited about this dress. Mostly because I drafted the whole thing myself (pretty much on the fly) and it turned out even better than I imagined. The satisfaction of dreaming something up, struggling with it, and then making it work is like no other. And it is why I love sewing.

The inspiration for my daughter’s Easter dress was this amazing Marimekko dress.  You know those pictures that you keep returning to again and again (on pinterest or in magazines or wherever it is you find your inspiration)? Where each time you see them you fall in love with them all over again. The picture of that dress was like that for me.

It’s simple, but quietly stunning; playful, but still super stylish; clever, but not show-offy. I wanted to make it in gray, but what little girl wants a gray Easter dress? That’s rather depressing. Then I thought I could use a narrow stripe–maybe have the stripe go one way on the bodice and another way on the triangle bit. I almost went with the stripe, but then I remembered Rashida’s fabric collection, Tsuru, and the gorgeous triangle print in it called Motif Madness.

I ordered 2 yards of it and thank goodness I did because I only had a handful of scraps when I was done. You should probably draft your pattern and then cut it out, instead of trying to do both simultaneously :) I also did a bit of fussy cutting (that triangle at the top of the pocket) which took up a bunch of fabric.  I was worried that the triangle pocket would get lost in all that print, so I added some orange trim. I wanted to use piping, but I couldn’t get the piping to be pointy at the top. So I bound it like a quilt! A little odd, but it worked.

For the back I used an invisible zipper and a hook & eye closure. It might have even looked professional, had I matched the print. Whatever, the zipper works and doesn’t look like hell. I’ll take it. The whole dress is even lined! The fabric was pretty thin and see-through, so a lining was necessary.

I couldn’t be happier with this dress. And as an added bonus, she loves it too!