One of the many neat things about Squam is that you get to drool over (and be inspired by) all the gorgeous things people have knit and sewn for themselves. This dress was on the agenda for last year, but I only managed to finish the shell. This year my dear friend Anne took these photos on Saturday afternoon.

The fabric is a cotton lawn from Spoonflower in an amazing print inspired by medieval rosette windows, a Christmas gift from my mom and sister. The designer’s name is Samarra Khaja, and her website is here. I’ve always had a thing for stained glass, but up ’til now I could only dream of wearing it!

The pattern is Butterick 5490, which I first spotted on Green Apples. I’d originally envisioned something really simple so as not to cut up the rosettes, but then every pattern I looked at felt a bit too plain, even considering the busyness of the pattern. Notice the bold fabric used in the sample garment (view A). Might as well make a statement, right?

The lining is a fine cotton batiste from Mood Fabrics. (Yes, this was a really expensive project. So, so worth it.)

Prewashing.

Part of what kept this project in my UFO pile was my reluctance to attempt an invisible zipper. Thanks to this Colette tutorial it feels doable now–except when it came time to use the invisible zipper foot, the machine seized up and the needle wouldn’t move! (I still need to figure out what I did wrong there.) Shuddering at a vision of spending the next two hours raging against my New Home, I decided to install the zipper by hand. Yes, it took ages, but it was stress free, even when I tried it on and found I needed to pull out the stitching and take it in a bit; plus, I got to hand-sew my way through Catching Fire on audiobook.

The green cardigan is from a pattern by Alexis Winslow, and I will blog about it soon. (Ravelry project link here.)

I’m really happy with this dress, even though the pleats at the back might make me look like I’m wearing a bustle, and a funky wrinkle keeps showing on the bodice (which I can probably fix). This is the first ‘proper’ dress I’ve ever really sewn–I’m not really counting sundresses #1 and #2, since they were super easy and required no daunting new techniques. The pattern calls for a lined bodice only, but the cotton lawn is slightly sheer, so I needed to add a skirt lining as well. I just traced the skirt from Heather Ross’s sundress pattern and gathered it using another great Colette how-to (I got the book for Christmas this past year–the format, clear photography, and projects are all terrific.) This lining no doubt contributes to the bustle effect, but I’ve never been concerned about the size of my tookus, and I’m not about to start.

I have to finish Kelly’s quilt before I do any more sewing for myself, but after that I’m excited to try some Colette patterns I’ve been stashing over the last year or two…