A Second Hanami Dress

After I sewed Tarikua's hanami dress, Indigo asked for one of her own.  (Music to a mama's ears.)

One of the things I love and appreciate about the hanami pattern is its versatility.  It's adorable on its own as a summer dress.  But it would be at least as cute paired with a cardigan and/or leggings in the fall or winter.  This isn't a one season pattern.  I like that.

I sewed this dress with an eye toward fall.  Why yes, it is still 100 degrees here on an almost daily basis. Isn't that reason enough for me to do some fallish sewing? :)

When I was new to sewing, I saw the most beautiful A-line (adult) dress in Volumes by Anna Maria Horner (in this colorway).  It was absolutely stunning and even now, four years later, that dress immediately came to mind when AMH released Volumes in her Hand Drawn Garden collection.

"Mom, you look very small from here."

With that dress as my inspiration, I had initially planned to sew this entire dress in Volumes in Matisse, except for the tan collar. But when I finished the bodice and was ready to play around with how to cut the skirt using Volumes, it was simply too much.  It didn't look like the dress I had envisioned, so I scrapped that idea.

"Mom, now I'm taking your picture!"

Instead, I decided to sew the skirt in the tan fabric, which matched the collar and gave it that fallish feel I was going for.  Of course, being the anti-fabric-hoarder that I am, I didn't order enough fabric.  So, I chided myself and waited as patiently as I could for this to come in the mail.  (This place has the fastest shipping!)

After I attached the skirt, I still felt something was missing.  So I turned to my handsome and debonair sewing consultant (Dan) for some advice.  I wanted to use a reverse hem facing as a contrasting hem.  After looking at several colors, we settled on this blue/turquoise, which matched the blue in the bodice.

I used my reverse hem facing tutorial to sew it on.  I didn't read step one because I wrote it and so I obviously know how to do it (duh).  And...  I sewed the whole thing on backwards.  So I ripped those stitches and started again.

The path to this dress was slow and meandering rather than a direct flight.  But sometimes those journeys are the most rewarding, in sewing and in life.

And that's the story of my second hanami dress.