Project Run and Play for Myself.....since I missed the deadline to enter

March was not particularly busy. I did have a visit from my sister-in-law, and St. Patrick's Day was crazy (see previous posting), and my mother was in town for a week. In addition, there was the general craziness that is school for the kids, chores for the house, errands for the family, etc. I had it completely under control. And I proceeded to thoughtfully put together my latest entry for Project Run and Play. It was sitting 95% complete on my ironing board and I knew it would only take another 15 minutes to complete it and then a photo shoot with my little one. But I had the dates completely wrong in my head and now that my dress is finished, the deadline for entering has passed. I can only reflect on what an idiot I am for blowing the deadline. I struggled mightily with this design and the end result is not precisely what I had in my head, but it would have been fun to be included in the mix once again. Lesson learned. But since I did finish the darn thing, I still thought I could write a post and show off the work that, despite the linen, I am still proud of.

The challenge this month was to rework a knot dress with a peephole back. I tend to not like peepholes - I think they look a little messy (at least when I do it) and I find that on adult clothing, they read kinda trashy - so I skipped it entirely. I thought the knots at the shoulders were clever and cute so I kept those. I finally decided to make a simple wrap dress with ties at both sides of the waist. The fabric is probably the only designer fabric I own. I bought it when we still lived in Alexandria at a little fabric store that is run out of a house (Del Ray Fabrics). The grey and yellow patterned fabric is Charleston Farmhouse by Felicity Miller. And then I dug up a small ton of this pretty yellow linen. I loathe linen. I dislike the way you wear it for 5 minutes and by the time you either emerge from the car or stand in a lightly humid breeze, you look like a crumpled bag. I will never sew anything linen for myself so I decided to put it to use for this challenge.

 

The dress has basic even gathering and I included a top-stitched trim of 3" along the bottom edge just to give it a little more structure. I top-stitched the gathers down, too so it wouldn't be so fluffy, but there is probably a tad bit more fullness in this than I was anticipating. 

 And I guess I have a reversibility problem, because I absolutely insisted on figuring out how to make this
one completely reversible, with nary an exposed seam to speak of. On the reverse side, the linen is featured and the grey makes a nice accent trim.

YEAH! Mama made it reversible!

 

 And as I suspected, it is a crumpled, rumpled mess. But it is soft and comfortable and versatile. Rae was a ridiculous little beastie during this shoot. She refused any hair or make-up. She wouldn't stand near the pretty greenery but insisted on draping herself closest to the ugly cement, mulch and playground equipment. And she wouldn't give up the bunny crackers or the pink Crocs.

I do like the end result. It stinks that no one will see it because I play an idiot in my free time. And to top it all off, Rae kinda hates it. I officially need a new model - not only must she have snacks during her photo shoots, she's just a plain old diva.