Skye Dress

The weather has finally caught up with us--I wore this dress yesterday and ditched the sweater by the time I got back from school drop off in the a.m.  (Didn't help that the bus on the way home had the heat going full blast!  But the outbound bus had the AC going full blast, so it was quite cold on one end of the trip...I can't win).

I'm trying to get more creative with the names I give my makes.  I often choose a name based on what the fabric is called (like the Green Cookie Book dress), or some obvious element in the print (like the Octopus dress), but I found that didn't work well for a number of makes this rotation.  So I had to start inventing things.  You'll notice that several dresses (including this one) take their names from Scottish Isles.  Nothing at all to do with the print or the dress; I just happen to like the name and it gives me some way to track the make beyond "floral rayon Simplicity 1080 dress."  

I'm also a huge fan of the Skye Boat song used as the theme song for Outlander (I also like the original version and have several recordings by various folk groups). 

So, the Skye Dress.  This was a rayon floral print I found on fabric.com sometime last year that I saved for spring.  I actually made this dress in February when I was getting my spring makes ready (I made it at the same time as the Birch dress, which explains why the sleeve fit is similar), but when it came down to it, I realized not only did it not really go with any of my spring clothing, it just didn't really seem like a spring dress to me.  It said summer.  So off to the summer pile it went.

I did originally have a kanga pocket on the dress, but I swapped it out for patch pockets a few weeks ago, as I realized that rayon+kanga pocket=sad saggage.  It seems like the kanga pocket needs fabric with some body to it to hold its shape.  I've been putting a lot of patch pockets on lately either for stylistic or fabric reasons.  Variety is good, I suppose.

I also learned, by virtue of making the Birch dress first, that the back elastic needs to be pretty snug to account for the extra drape in the fabric.  Linen seems to need this too, although I think that is more due to the weave of the fabric rather than the drape.  My best tip for sewing with rayon challis is to use a stretch needle--it really helps to make the process a lot smoother.

I realize that this is one of those prints that doesn't photograph well at a distance, but it is quite pretty up close:

The blue sweater isn't an exact match, but it is close enough, I guess.  It was hard to thread-match this fabric as well.  Nothing really "disappeared" into the fabric, but the turquoise thread looked the least bad.  It turned out pretty well in the end.

Pulled out my fancy clogs just cause.  Boo noticed them when we were getting on the bus and made a comment about my wearing "high heels."  I had to laugh a little.  

A solid make, I think!

Just the facts:

Skye dress: random rayon challis from fabric.com, bias tape, elastic, Simplicity 1080 (heavily modified).

Royal blue cardigan: H&M

Necklace: had since a child

Earrings: gift (via etsy)

Shoes: Old Navy via ThredUp