I’ll have to admit, I did get a bit side tracked last time when I meant to write about the spectacular First communion dress and ended up talking about shimmering sequins. Clearly that would have been very inappropriate for such a dress. Even I know that.

So, after the failure of our first shopping trip we tried again and came back with plain white cotton and some tulle with tiny dots perfect for a Leni by pattydoo, a pattern for a very nice and simple summer dress. Sleeveless. Which seems to be inappropriate for the occasion according to my mum.

By the way, very last-minute we had gotten informed that we would in fact not need a classic First communion dress. Any nice summer dress would do. Great to know, about two weeks before the event (not that I would have even started making it) after spending months and months selling the idea of a plain white dress (without any ANY colour!) to my daughter. And to myself.

I also knitted a cardigan as we couldn’t be sure if it will be 30 degrees or rather – 30 at the end of april. (See, I can still knit)

Dress: pattern: Leni by pattydoo,fabrics bought at Komolka, Vienna. Cardigan: pattern: Posy by Georgie Nicholson, yarn: Lana Grossa Cool Wool Big (Merino)

Full circle skirts are great for dancing…

The tulle layer is actually sewn on top of the finished cotton dress, the ribbon at the waist is hiding the ugly truth.

But why would a highly trained and skilled dressmaker with attention to detail do such a thing rather than treating the two skirt layers as one to have a clean finished seam on the outside?  Well, obviously the day of the First Communion was not the final destiny of said dress! So, the next day… ok, about two months later, I removed the ribbon and the tulle which is now serving as veil for dressing up and dyed the cotton layer blue. By the way, I had used cotton thread for the normal seams but I only had polyester thread for the serger. So whilst the seams have turned blue like the fabric, the serged seam on the finished edges has stayed white as anticipated.

Whilst a blue dress is obviously already a step forward, we were still not satisfied. After all, a blue dress is still monochromatic. So we cut some butterflies out of some gum….

did a few trial prints on a similarly blue piece of fabric…

and started to print butterflies onto the dress…

Much better, what a relief.

However, as it is a woven cotton it creases easily and involves an annoying amount of ironing. I clearly hadn’t been thinking this project through.

Ok, what do you think? A project worth being the first post after such a long absence? After looking at it, I have to admit, I imagined it much better…. I guess this is not good enough! Back to the start then!