two years ago our friends joe and kathryn got married and i decided to use the occasion to make myself a new dress.

i found myself wanting something special so i went to spoonflower, a site i had read provided a lot of the fabric for the little things to sew book by oliver + s.

it was amazing. i spent hours looking at prints before ordering a few swatches. once they arrived i quickly settled on the teal serpentine and placed an order for two yards in cotton sateen.

love aunt magie by hand london by maggie

while waiting for my fabric to arrive i started researching dress options. nothing was really speaking to me until i came across the elisalex dress from by hand london at gather here.

it's a little hard to tell from the pattern what the finished product looks like, so like a good millennial i did a quick google search. loving what i saw, i bought the pattern and went home to get started on a muslin, with the help of an oatmeal stout of course.

while annoying, the muslin did tell me something... i wasn't crazy about the way the dress fit my body.

take two, with a slightly narrower skirt and thinner straps, was much better.

when my fabric arrived a week or so later i got to work.

i was quickly reminded why i don't like sewing for adults. there is so much finicking with things to get it to fit right. first the pinning and basting: