A Super Alternative for a Quilt-worthy Friend

Despite the title of this blog, I haven't really had much time for quilting since my son was born in 2015. I'm making slow, on-again-off-again progress on my Christmas Traditions quilt, but with the tiny windows I have to sew, large projects have taken a backseat to smaller, more manageable things that can be done in 3-4 sittings or so.

So, friends who used to be quilt-worthy are now getting garments. Like this gem. We've been good friends with this couple pretty much since their daughter was born a year after ours, and they're even bigger "classic" gamers than we are. So when I saw this print on Memorial Day sale at Sweet N Charmed, I knew it was time for their "quilt alternative."
 

For the pattern, I decided on the Paisley by Simple Life Pattern Co, because 1) I'd had such amazing success with the Isla and 2) the Paisley has an open-backed detail that's to die for, which I knew their daughter would love (see the photo from the SLPCo site below)

One of the fun parts of this dress (and this fabric) was doing a lot of fussy cutting. The repeat was such that I could easily make sure the scene was centered, and this dress did rely fairly heavily on clever cutting and placement of bricks.

The finished product has a fussycut brick neckline (no exposed seam method), and some clever placement of the brick fabric to create the illusion of a brick binding on the sleeve.

I also used the short sleeve option, the regular back (as opposed to the modest cut which is ALSO included), and the full circle skirt. I briefly considered dropping the waist a bit (my daughter's friend is tall), but was glad I ultimately didn't because keeping it where it was meant more long, flowy skirt to play with.

Entertainingly, my daughter came across me as I was cutting it out, and asked who the dress was for. When I told her, wrinkled her nose and said "I don't think my friend will like that fabric very much." Oh, my sweet summer child, I thought, you have no idea who I am trying to please with this gift. Of course, once she saw the completed project she was very happy to model it for me.

Twirling and playing in that skirt certainly made her day, and, I think she might be suffering a little dress envy! I did have one major Dress!Fail that I do hope to correct next time: when I topstitched the back it stretched the fabric and produced some puckering. I'm hoping the puckering will be less visible on my daughter's friend (A is a little smaller than her), but per the SLPCo fan page on facebook,  I'm definitely going to have to try a longer stitch length on topstitching if/when I make this again. 

Which - I think I need to. It's such a versatile pattern, and look at that face!