Sari Summer Dress

I've been making a determined effort to try and reduce my fabric stash, slightly undermined by last weekend's fabric acquisition.

This weekend I completed a summer dress from some cotton sari fabric which I was given earlier in the year. Its a really pretty cream colour with a green pattern, with a green, gold and black border. I based the design on a New Look pattern which I picked up in the sale earlier in the year.

I wanted to make the wider skirt versions, but this needed a few modifications. To use the border at the bottom of the fabric as the bottom of the skirt I needed to change the skirt design so it finished on a straight rather than a curved line. I also needed to work out the skirt length before I cut the pieces, as it didn't need hemming. As the fabric is quite thin, I extended the lining from half to full length, for modesty reasons! Finally I removed the built in belt, and replaced this was a thinner separate belt, made from some of the border at the bottom of the fabric.

Everything was going fine until it got to the moment to insert the lining. As usual, I had cursory scanned the instructions and then carried on regardless, thinking I knew how to make a dress. However, in making the full length lining, I had changed the construction slightly, and this resulted in a bit of problem when it came to attaching it!

After a, fairly reasonable, number of expletives and the ever reliable quick-unpick tool, I bodged my way to attaching the lining :)

Here is the finished article, I'm really pleased with it and the alterations I have made seem to have worked out in the end. Of course, the nice sunny weather has now departed from the Irish shores, so perhaps I will just have to treat myself to a nice sun holiday this year. Just to justify making the dress of course ;)

I've also got yards of the fabric left over and I'm thinking it might make a nice light shirt, any thought?