It’s Camtastic

Hello, everyone!  How has the month been for you all?  Who has started on any of June’s projects?  Unfortunately, not I, but now that May’s make is out of the way, I have a free sewing table ready for something new.  Today’s dress was inspired by a fellow sewing blogger and Monthly Stitcher, and it’s my make of the month for May’s challenge: Inspiration Nation.  Since I have only been taking part in these monthly sewing challenges since February, I did a little back browsing and came across this dress from the Curious Kiwi:

Don’t you just love it?  Well, if you don’t, you have already figured out that I do.  I immediately searched the interwebs for what I would need to make something similar.  I love the camera print and I love the fit and flare, retro-looking style.  I didn’t find the exact material that was used above, and I didn’t buy the exact pattern.  Instead I went with a pattern I already had in my stash, Butterick 5748; and while looking up online fabric deals, I found some one of a kind black and white camera material from Hobby Lobby.  (It just so happens they had a printable 40% off coupon available the day I was looking.  Score!!)

My dress didn’t have to be an exact copy, and here’s what my retro-style camera dress looks like:

It’s not nearly as colorful as the dress that inspired me, and my skirt ended up not being a circle skirt, more on that in a minute, but I am very happy with how it turned out.  There is one thing my dress is missing though, a petticoat.  I do have a petticoat, but I still can’t find a good enough reason to wear it.  It is oh, so poofy and makes me seem a little more dressed up than my daily Wal-Mart outings and small town errand running usually allow for.  I even totally forgot that I had the petticoat until a friend reminded me via Instagram.  I showed a bad mirror selfie wearing one last week when I finished this dress, and when it was time to wear the dress in real life, the petticoat was an out of sight out of mind kind of thing. (One of these days though that petticoat will get worn, and this will be the perfect dress with which to wear it.)

Enough of petticoats, let’s talk more about the dress.  The Butterick 5748 has a very nice circle skirt.  The reason this dress doesn’t have one: I couldn’t get the circle cut out without having some of these cameras be upside down.  My nearest Hobby Lobby is 35 minutes away so I couldn’t just pop on in real quick and get some more fabric.  I made do.  I used the skirt portion of my Simplicity 1873, and it was a great match.  I got to use pretty much all of my three yards of material, and my finished project has all these wonderful pleats!

Once again, let me say back pictures are hard to take. I am standing weird in this one, I know. It was the best of the worst.

Silly me, I neglected to take notes the last time I made anything from the Butterick pattern, so I had to do a little seam-ripping with this one, and I ended up having to cut off 5/8 inch from the bottom of the bodice.  Only a small set back for me, because overall this dress was a breeze to make.  Oh, and one more little detail: after my last make with the exposed metal zipper, I want all my dresses to have exposed zippers.  I used the same tutorial for this dress as the one I used for the last to get that exposed zipper look.  I went with a non-metal zipper this time because I wanted to compare the differences between the two.  I like the look of the metal one better, but I am not disappointed with how this one came out either.  There will be plenty of metal and non-metal exposed zippers in my dress projects to come.

I am pretty sure I have told you all everything I wanted to say about this one.  The Curious Kiwi’s beautiful dress was a wonderful inspiration to me, and I am very happy to have my very own ‘retro’ camera dress.  It’s Camtastic!

You can find more from me over at Rejoice for the Day.  Until next month, happy sewing everyone!