Indian Summer

The photography appointment for our family pictures was coming up, and September's changing leaves and cool, crisp air made me excited to pick out coordinating sweaters and scarves.  Then I looked at the forecast for that day (upper 80s), so I decided to go with heat-comfortable, not too matchy-matchy, but somewhat coordinating clothes.  Mustard yellow was my original common thread, but I wasn't excited to wear my yellow scarf in the heat and I could tell Steve wasn't crazy about the plaid shirt I had picked out.  Better give the patterns to the kids.

Picture day rolled around and I had a last-minute, hair-brained idea: Sew a dress for Olivia.  I remembered I had a grouping of fabric with a touch of yellow and I had made a knot dress like this before, so I printed out the bodice pattern (size 6 this time)  and went to work.  I work best under pressure anyway.  I found some ribbon in my stash to use for the straps and sash, so that was a time-saver.  Once I had the bodice sewn I just held up the skirt fabric to determine the length.  (For those of you wanting details, Olivia wears a size 5 so I cut a few inches of selvage off the skirt fabric to trim my yard of fabric into two 19" rectangles, including a 1/2" seam allowance. The bottom ruffle is a half yard cut in half lenghthwise and then folded lengthwise and gathered).  Instead of gathering by hand with running stitches I just cranked up the tension on my machine; that worked brilliantly and saved time.  The dress came together in an afternoon and Olivia was thrilled to have something new and twirly for picture day.

And with the color combination it still looks like fall, so I'm calling it her Indian Summer dress.  I'll be putting a turtleneck under it before long.  Here is the preview collage from the photographers, and I love how they turned out!

They were taken at a local vineyard, and the buttery, evening light was perfect.