This dress was an exercise in the least fussy, least complicated clothes-making. I began with a large piece of very lightweight, woven cotton fabric (maybe about 2 yards?) that was hemmed on the short ends and selvedge on the long ends. (for more pics/process shots, see the highlight on my insta stories)

I started by folding the fabric in half long-wise and cutting a bodice out of the edge - keeping the hem in tact to create a very simple boatneck. I used a shirt I liked the length of to approximate the length of the bodice. Then, I cut that bodice in half so that I had a front and a back (sort of identical). I sewed, right sides together, shoulder seams, leaving a big opening for my head (like I said, boatneck). I didn’t need to finish the seams because of the hem the fabric had already.

Then, I sewed up the sides of the bodice, around 7inches from the bottom, leaving a large hole for my arms. I sewed it 1 inch in so that I had plenty of fabric to hem an arm hole. If I were to do this again, I’d cut the bodice about 0.5 inches slimmer than the intended sleeve/arm hole, I think because it would have made the arm cleaner. (It was fine in this fabric- so light & drapey).

Then I hemmed the arm holes (next time I’ll check how I’m folding & pinning so that my pins end up on the right side when I go to sew).

I gathered the rest of the fabric (set your machine to its longest stitch, do not backstitch at the beginning and end, and stitch across the length of fabric you’ll gather. Repeat a second time, close to that row of stitches you made. Then pull on the threads & it’ll start to gather). Once the gathers were roughly the circumference of the bodice, i sewed them to the bottom of the bodice. (The bodice I finished with a zigzag stitch, nothing fancy here).

Then I put the dress on and it was sweet but too long. So I put it down for a few hours, watched a movie and knitted and then decided to attach a ruffle to the bottom.

I cut the bottom 15in off and then cut that in half (to make a piece of fabric long enough to gather & match the width of my skirt) then gathered and attached it.

I finished the hem with a straight stitch and left it raw.

I love the way this dress feels on my body & as I wear it around, I’m learning why we have things like necklines and bias binding. But for now, it was a very sweet and simple exercise in clothes-making - simplified.