more itty bitty-ness

What's this I see? Some gathered fabric? A little pipping? Could it be another Itty Bitty Dress? You bet it is, but only this time I decided to play around a little bit. I gained some confidence the first time around, so I thought 'why not?'

I happened on this 1/2 yard of cute gray fabric at my first visit to the Peapod Fabrics. This cute itty, bitty shop in the city is filled with the best and most popular fabrics out there. Really, stepping inside the shop was like taking of tour of the modern fabric explosion that is all over the web. I snatched up this 1/2 yard cut in the basket by the front door only moments after walking in. A bad sign for my wallet, but a great sign that the Peapod Fabrics is doing something right.

Anyways, back to the little dress at hand and how I modified it the second time. First off, I enlarged the pattern. I don't remember by how much now, but since the first dress was so tiny I thought a bit bigger might not be a bad idea.

I took the 'scalpel' to the pattern as well. Off came the ties - they became just regular, plain old shoulder straps. And the biggest bit of surgery - I cut straight up the back of the dress. This little dress was getting a button closed backside! I didn't just cut the back and add buttons because that wouldn't have worked - you need some overlap. So, with great trepidation because my math skills have been degenerating year by year, I figured the amount of overlap and added this to the side where I split open the back. I also added in the amount that would go into the finished seam of the back opening. Tricky math business! {ok, not really but I took my time because I wanted it to come out right}

Lastly, out of necessity because the gray fabric I had left over for the skirt part of the dress wasn't quite big enough I added a band of the orange to the bottom. I love how this finished the dress.

Happy sewing!