Sunflower Triplets

I’m so excited to share not one but three dresses today! Which may or may not be basically the same.

If you’re an avid reader of my blog (is anyone even an avid reader???), you’ll remember my mom, on the left, from this post earlier, where I made her this same dress with different fabric. Then there’s me in the middle (hi!) and my bff Kelsey on the right.

This all started because I actually made myself a dress almost exactly like this last summer, but for some reason it literally vanished from my closet and I can’t find it for the life of me! I even emptied my whole closet and dresser and it was nowhere to be found. Truth be told, I wasn’t as experienced in fitting patterns last summer, so I didn’t adjust the bodice for my height and it didn’t fit the best. So I took the opportunity to re-make mine now, since it was one of my favorite dresses (fitting aside)! For mine, I used the Sweetheart Dress pattern, lowered the neckline about 2″, for my height I added 1″ to the bodice within the armsyce, removed 1″ at the bottom of the bodice because I am short waisted, and removed 1″ from the knee length skirt for preference.

I had enough fabric because my mom loved my dress so much last year that she bought some to make herself one. She ran out of time so she asked me to make it for her instead, which I finally did last week. I made her the previous dress earlier this summer to check the fit and my adjustments for her height (she’s 5′, and I am 5’8″, you are not going crazy!). She also wanted a waistband, so I added one for this dress. I used the Sweetheart Dress pattern for her with a waistband hack, removed 2″ in the bodice for her height and blended two sizes, and cut the skirt length one size up to make it a little longer than knee length.

For Kelsey’s dress, I used the Boundless Dress pattern for the bodice and the Sweetheart Dress pattern for the skirt. I blended two sizes in the bodice and cut the skirt on the knee length cut line. I made this one for her last summer when she saw my original dress and wanted one for her. This pattern combo is what I did for my own original dress as well. I decided to go with the Sweetheart this time around simply because I already knew what kind of fit adjustments I needed to do for me.

So essentially, these dresses are all basically the same, the only difference in terms of fit is the bodice necklines mainly. All three are lined bodices with circle skirts. The Boundless Dress is intended to have a lined bodice, but I did alter the Sweetheart Dress to have a lined bodice. Essentially, this just means adding an extra 1″-ish to the strap sides and neckline, and then sewing it as a “burrito roll” (which is outlined in the Boundless tutorial). I say 1″ because you have to account for the 1/2″ seam allowance you’ll be eating up, but also the lack of the extra 1/2″ or so that bands/binding would normally have added So by adding an extra 1″ in the areas where you’d normally add binding, you compensate for that. Otherwise, the straps will be much too skinny! Ask me how I know. 😉

Let’s talk about the fabric. I know everyone’s going to ask…it’s an ITY which I got at a local store to me, Vogue Fabrics. Unfortunately, I have not seen it back in stock this year! They had it for quite a while last summer/fall, which is when I bought all of this originally, but it seems they aren’t going to get it back in this year. I did see this same print in a different color way, however (sunflowers on a bright blue background). So if you’re in Chicago maybe stop by and try out your luck!

That’s it for now! Hope you enjoyed a glimpse into our amusing afternoon. We did wear these three dresses when hanging out at my parents’ house and everyone thought it was pretty entertaining that we matched so well! Candid shot:

And, my dad photobombed us as he was tending to his honeybees. Looks like our Halloween costumes are done, we just need someone to dress up as a bee. #lame 🙂