Summer Dress 1: The cow says muu(muu)

I've completed my first piece for my Summer of the Handmade Dress (is it A Thing yet?), and . . . well, wow. I used Simplicity 2262, picked up for a buck at JoAnn during a pattern sale:

What I liked about this pattern from the get-go: see those words up at the tippity top of the pattern? Easy-to-sew? There. I was sold. I haven't done well with using patterns for sewing in the past--in fact, clothing-making in general has gone rather poorly for me. I love sewing quilts (like this one and this and a couple more) but clothes are a completely different matter.

I got to work with some fabric I bought for $2 at JoAnn, and 2/3rds of Serenity later (nothing gets me in the mood to sew like mutant killer cannibals attacking space cowboys 500 years in the future!), I had this lovely number:

What the what?! I made a muumuu! 

I cut the pattern to a size medium, which my measurements should have worked for according to the back of the pattern envelope, but it. was. ENORMOUS. I look like I'm wearing a circus tent. The good news is that my sleeve add-on was a success (inasmuch as we can call a short-sleeved muumuu a success).

As I was sewing, I'll admit, it seemed big, but I had faith in the pattern envelope. While I was working, the less-stupid part of my brain kept saying, "Hold the phone, I don't think we're this large, maybe we should try this bad boy on for size before we get too far," but the faith-in-authority-figures part of my brain said, "No no, everything will be okay! We measured! The envelope says we're a medium!" And all of that ruckus was drowned out by the impatient-let's-get-this-project-finished brain segment that just kept yelling, "Faster! SEW FASTER! WE'RE ALMOST DONE!" Needless to say, it was a noisy party in my head.

So the lesson to be learned from my muumuu fiasco is don't trust the envelope--try it on as you go! And a second, but no less important lesson is you really ought to go see somebody about those head-voices.

But I certainly wasn't about to give up on that hefty $3 investment, so I did some fitting (just put my tent on inside-out and pinned the front and back pieces together where I wanted them to fit, starting at the armpit and pinning every few inches all the way down to the hem) and I think it turned out pretty well:

(I'm not wearing white tights, guys. That is my natural leg color. Jealous?)

Some thoughts on this dress in case somebody out there thinks about using this pattern:

- If you're going to use this pattern, either go ahead and cut it a size smaller than what it recommends for you based on your measurements . . .

- Or at least try it on for size a few times as you go (you know, even if you cut it smaller, just do this anyway. It would have saved me a world of trouble, and I wouldn't have missed the end of Serenity because I was too busy pulling my hair out to pay attention.)

- If I hadn't had to go back and redo everything, it really would have been, as promised, easy to sew--there are only a few pattern pieces, and really nothing tricky to fret over.

- If you need to go back and size it down, do so before hemming the bottom--it will look a lot less sloppy if you aren't re-sewing the side seams right over the bottom hem (I am a lazy, lazy seamstress and was so annoyed at my big dang muumuu I just wanted to get it over with)

- Turns out that adding sleeves is pretty simple! I just used the sleeve piece from another pattern I had on hand (Simplicity 2599), re-cut it to fit my muumuu, and sewed it on.

- I didn't use bias tape to hem the neckline/sleeves/bottom hem as the pattern suggests--I didn't have any, so I just hemmed it the good old-fashioned way: fold twice and sew.

- I skipped the pockets, which turned out to be a great idea since the 5-ish inches I ended up hacking off of both sides would have probably left me with 1/2-inch deep pockets.

One dress down, a closet-full left to go! Here's hoping dress #2 goes a little more smoothly.