Happy 4th of July!  Ready for my stop on the Dress Up This Town Tour? We of course have this super fun theme song, which inspired me to focus on more dresses for me.

You may have remembered my sharing of my Sis Boom Carolina Maes back in January. I LOVE this pattern. Sadly, all the dresses I made back in January don't fit anymore. But that's ok, because that meant it was time to make more!

I knew as soon as I got started that I would need to muslin again. But I did something different this time. Rather than chopping up some pre-muslin adjustments, I wanted to try starting from scratch. That meant, no adjustments, except width adjustments. I also knew, I wanted to do a zero ease dress, which meant that I would be taking in seams all over the place. Better to start with an unadjusted pattern so I wouldn't mess up grainlines with my adjustments.

The reason I LOVE the Carolina Mae is because it has built in cup sizes. I THOUGHT I was using the right cup size, so went with a D cup. Turns out my new bras shifted things around, so I ended up taking in so much off of the front, that it was a c-cup (which is my "new" sewing cup size). Whoops.




For reference, the purple print is my wearable muslin after my original adjustments. I failed to take in enough at the center front (an adjustment I've been needing lately) so while wearable, I don't like the way it gapes at center front depending on how I stand. If you need to make this adjustment too, you might like this tutorial from cashmerette. Instead of pivoting into the side dart, I pivoted the difference into the under bust darts. This gave a great silhouette. My one failure? I forgot to blend back out that shoulder to cover my bra straps. 😨 Better luck next time though, right?

I've become a little obsessed with pleats rather than gathered skirt dresses. I like that they're more precise and they do this little poof thing at my hips. That makes it look like I actually have hips. Jokes on you, LOL.

My solid purple dress is so close to perfect. I used the stretch poplin from my shop, Simply By Ti. While I may have forgotten to extend the shoulder to cover my bra straps, I did add in the one thing that all dresses need, POCKETS. Oh yes, pockets are one of those little gifts you can give yourself. To place my pocket, I copied the pocket from my Sis Boom Angie. Because I had my wearable muslin, I measured how far down to put my pockets.

I like my pockets to be fully hidden in my side seams. To do that, I sew my pockets with a 1/4" seam allowance then I sew the skirt side seams with a 1/2" seam allowance. Since the Carolina Mae uses a gathered rectangle skirt, it is easy to just use a different seam allowance. The 1/2" seam allowance hides the pocket 1/4" inside the skirt seam so they don't peak out when you aren't using them. If you are using a lighter weight fabric, you may even want to top stitch them in. (Those stitches will hide inside the larger seam allowance).

I can't wait to make another one of these dresses. The silhouette is perfect, and they're so easy to wear.

Are you inspired to make a dress or two for yourself or a little girl in your life? Perhaps you'd like to win a few patterns to try yourself? Be sure to register below to win on of our great prizes.

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Week 1: July 1st-8th
1- Sewing By Ti (Intro) and Stitching At Night
2- Me Made
3- Tenille's Thread
4- Sewing By Ti ***You are here. 😀
5- Seams Sew Lo
6- Anne Mari Sews
7- Sea of Estrogen
8- Lulu and Celeste

Week 2: July 9th-15th
9- Living in Twinado Valley
10- Ma Moose
11- My Heart Will Sew On
12- Seams Sew Lo
13- Kate Will Knit
14- Creative Counselor
15- Sewing With Sarah

Week 3: July 16th-22nd
16- Stitching and Making
17- That's Sew Lily
18- Sprouting Jube Jube
19- Auschick Sews
20- Anne Mari Sews
21- Lulu and Celeste
22- On Wednesdays We Sew

Week 4: July 23rd-31st
23- Stitching At Night
24- Sewing Curves
25- My Heart Will Sew On
26- Indulging Mum
27- That's Sew Lily
28- Adventures With Bubba and Bug
29- Capture, Craft Cook
30- Sewing By Ti
31- Sew Like a Sloth