Knot Dress

I've made a few dresses before using this pattern, but still managed to sew the ruffle onto the wrong side of the bodice. And for some reason--probably because my serger is right in the kitchen, while my sewing machine is all the way back in my tiny sewing room and I didn't feel like walking back there--I serged it when I did it, so picking out the stitches to redo the ruffle wasn't happening. I tried to make the inside out bodice work with the rest fabrics I'd originally planned to use, but I wasn't feeling the new combination and decided to do two separate dresses instead. 

I don't normally let the girls choose their own fabric combinations. Not because I care whether things match (I don't), but because it's hard for me to sew something together if I don't love it. This dress was so close to being finished that I figured it couldn't hurt to give Maxine some say in the rest of the fabrics. Still, I didn't exactly let her choose the specific fabrics, but each girl made a pile of their favorite fabrics one afternoon, so I rummaged around in Max's pile and, with her approval, came up with these:

It's not a combination I'd have come up with from the start, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Considering. And I managed to work in Max's favorite "boots!" fabric, which is nice, because it doesn't seem to go with many of the fabrics I own. And she loves it, so that's all that really counts.

I used this pattern from Little Lizard King, which I've made quite a few dresses from, in various sizes. I have to say, I love it. You can cut everything out with a rotary cutter, and it goes together quickly. Even if you sew the bodice inside out.