Zephyr Sundresses: The Dress to Last a Lifetime

I swear when I made the first iterations of this dress, they lasted one MILLION years.  They seemed to fit Camden forever, before we finally passed passed them on to her cousins.

I swear I made two back in the day, but I can't find the other

The Zephyr dress by Figgy's Patterns is a simple-enough make - quicker than the romper version, which I blogged about a couple months ago.

Overall, cute dresses!  I will say that on THESE and the romper, I cut the straps NOT on the bias, which I think it calls for, and I also did NOT make tubes out of the strips before braiding them.  I just braided those suckers.  I was hoping that by not cutting them on the bias, they wouldn't stretch, as was the case with the old Zephyrs I'd made, but they still do stretch, which is kind of sad.

I like this dress for a long look.  It totally works and gets me to use my knits, which I don't often do.

In the last post, I added several photos of our trip to Michigan, but we have been busy since we've been back.  It has been a pretty fun summer so far, though we ARE hunkering down at home during the eclipse, as it will be NUTS here in Central Oregon.

Meeting up with a fun mom in South Dakota!

Camping for the first time in a LONG time!

A little Tumalo time with friends!

More friend times! 

Can't take the heat...so...sleeps in the kitchen

Making daggers, of course

A fun visit!

Figgy's Strikes Again - the Zephyr Romper!

I do NOT know how I haven't made more of these!!!  I love this Zephyr Romper by Figgy's and wish I'd made Camden one for each of the past two years.  She has only ever had one of them, and I loved it to pieces!  

OMG!!!  May of 2013!!

Well....okay.  I DO know why I don't make them more often....it IS a bit fiddly, though not difficult, really.  And I have been putting it off in favor of quicker things to sew...especially since Tiberius arrived in our lives, aha!

The pattern is awesome, and it's another that is best to assembly line sew, in my opinion!  As with last time, I also made two dress versions, yet to be blogged (as in, I finished them last night, in the midst of having a cold, LOL).  I used a fun fabric I bought way back when I purchased the fabric for the first I'd made.

One of the fiddly bits is in making the braided straps, BUT....I made them simpler this time by NOT sewing tubes out of my knit fabric strips...I left them raw.  Smart move, I KNOW!!!  I also did NOT cut them on the bias, as I found the top dragged a bit last time I made this.  As for the button loops, I'm just plain silly and SHOULD have made tubes, but I thought I was a GENIUS and had another plan...that then involved me hand-sewing the tubes shut.....not good times, but whatever.

Also, not photographed is a defect:  I didn't realize until after I'd sewn the WHOLE OUTFIT that I didn't manage to get the end of one of the button loops caught under the original seam, so, it's dangerously exposed and could probably fall out at some point.  I could try to fix it - but maybe later, aha!  I do wish, though, I'd looked at pattern photos, as I wouldn't have moved the buttons so far over.  Another strike against me, as I did that on the dress versions last night, too.

The cuff pieces are a bit of work, but I used the knit on the outside, attached a knit interfacing, then lined the cuffs with shot cotton.  I also hand-stitched those into place after I knotted them.

Lastly, I totally took GENIUS to the next level by just not reading the pattern at all.  I attached the bodice to the shorts and completely forgot about that whole elastic casing bit....so, there was a bit of SERGED seam un-picking.....oops.

Overall, love it!!!  Just bummed about the button loop situation - and thinking it won't fit for long.  I sewed the size based on her chest measurement, but it's a bit snug getting on, so, I'm sure the same'll go with the dress versions I made.  Last time I made all of these, she got a LOT Of use out of them, so, I must have sewn based on age last time or something.  Such is life!

Days in the life.....

Best spot to read, really!