The Dress Fail That Turned Into a Skirt

I was out perusing fabrics, like you do, when I found this fabric:

It is green with metallic grey (which looks purple) and a bit of yellow.

And I fell in love with it. Plus it was on sale! A yard and a half just waiting for me. I thought I would make a little summer dress with a circle skirt. And I wasn't going to use a pattern--mistake number one.

With my mom as a personal consultant, we went to a fabric shop to find another color to mix with my lovely patterned fabric. She suggested this yellow, which I never would have considered, but which looked very nice with my fabric:

This yellow matches the little bit of yellow in my fabric perfectly.

The skirt part was easy, since I have made circle skirts before. I tried to find a basic online pattern with instructions for a dress bodice that was very cute. Mistake number two. 

And mistake number three is probably my lack of dress dummy. If I had one, I think I could have salvaged the top. I know what I want for my birthday...

Anyway, the top was not working out, but the skirt was definitely worth saving. So I added a band and I already had the zipper! Of course, I also managed to seriously mess up the zipper twice (have I mentioned that I hate zippers?) and it took some serious motivating to rip it out yet again to try to fix it. The band around the top didn't fit right either (again, a dress dummy would be great) which helped motivate me to tear it all out again. Third time is the charm, right?

Well, almost:

Ugh, silly zipper...

Good enough! I decided at this point that I was over it. My mom said no one would notice besides me anyway...

Side note, I ended up using this tutorial (not exactly because I found it after I purchased my zipper) which is the best I have seen thus far: The Absolute Easiest Way to Sew a Zipper.

I sewed a little hook and loop at the top of the zipper to help keep it closed and hidden. And then my mom came over to pin my hem (do you see how much I need this dress dummy?) and that's that!

A pretty spring-y skirt! I wore it to Cat and Drew's wedding and got several compliments on it (and was told that I look like a Disney princess! Life achievement right there!). And yes, that is a matching bow in my hair! And the skirt is magical because it really spirals out when I twirl! I love it! I want to make a closet full of different circle skirts! And I think I need to make a cute tulle skirt next. Or more plaid circle skits because I am seriously in love with cute plaid skirts.