Dressing, Getting Dressed, Finding the Right Dress for Spring and Summer

 

Good Morning Friends. Today I am thinking about Spring and Summer dresses. I remember the days when I only wore dresses and skirts. I remember the day when my hospital permitted the first "Pant-suit" uniform. Let me tell you I was the first. In my work I needed to do a lot of bending over, stretching, and walking. The custom dress nursing uniform was very restrictive. Moving on to pants was so liberating, I never looked back. 

In my private life it was much the same. After the mid-1980's very few dresses populated my closet. 

This season I wanted to do a lot of dress sewing, I have the patterns! However, I just can't sit and sew too long without significant discomfort. Therefore I did some online shopping and found some nice, decently priced dresses, mostly for home wear. This last weekend, a nice warm one, was just right for popping on a simple below the knee breezy dress for comfort. I was thrilled with how easy it was to dress! No mix and match, no binding waist, it was just right. Even in our later years, our clothes need to portray self respect and the look we wish to portray to family and friends. I will be sewing, soon I hope. In the meantime, I have been scrolling the web for ideas for patterns, fabrications, and comparative cost. Here we go, I am so glad I sew!

If you are looking for some nice, well designed dresses for Spring and Summer, you are facing a bit of a dilemma. Right now, they are few and far between in my area.  Several fashion blogs have been searching for some online sources to provide a few options. 

Halsbrook is very pricey (in my opinion) but the examples there support my theory that returning to more lady like clothing is a new trend. 

This dress is stretch poplin at $390.00. Yes, that's the price! There have to be alternatives somewhere, right? I would never pay that, but it sure does give me ideas. This fabric is available at Mood, Georgeous Fabrics, and Emma One Sock. Rev up that machine honey, we have a plan! 

 This one is a designer dress, Emma Sung, "the Audrey Blue Magnolia Dress" at a mere $850.00. It is beautiful, isn't it? I have recently seen quilt fabrics much like this. 3/4 cuffed sleeves, full button front, with simple single fold pleats in the skirt. Love it. 

 In a recent post, Susan Blakely, une femme d’un certain âge! blog, HERE, wrote about the fashion and style she saw in London on a recent visit. Finding grown-up styles of dresses is difficult these days. The dress above is from L.K. Bennet, London, HERE. This Elowen Pink Blossom dress clocks in at $540.00 US. Kate Middleton likes this company and can often be seen sporting their clothes.  

In the UK, little floral dress patterns abound. I follow a couple sewing blogs where that style is almost exclusively presented. Not "cutesy" but well drafted, not ruffled and "blinged out", but more tailored, more feminine. 

This is Style Arc, Montana, it is first on my list of makes. It only takes 3 yards of fabric. I have that!

This little Style Arc Bonita, is another one in the queue, a mock wrap style it can be fashioned as a dress or a blouse. I have to check the fabric requirement for this one, not sure if I have enough but I do have the pic on my phone and will do some sale shopping. I think I will make it as a top first to get the fit and the cross-wrap tested but this one looks perfect for Summer.

Another Style Arc pattern, this one looks really simple to construct. This one might be first. Got to mine the stash for the fabric. I will likely use my kitchen island for cutting. It is a little higher than my cutting table and therefore reduces my back strain. 

• Everything I plan right now is pain dependent. I will have some alternatives soon. I work a bit, I rest a bit, I moan and groan, but I am not giving in to this current event.
• I think the dress trend is perfect for the warm weather. 
• This might be a good time to use up some of that extensive stash!