Without a doubt summer is here in Southern California for the next four months. I know I’ll want to be throwing on clothes that are cool and easy. Fresh Make #11 is one of many sleeveless dresses I’ll be making this summer.  The pattern I choose was Sunny Day Beach Dress from the Sew Daily pattern store. When I received an email announcing 40% off their PDF patterns, I took a peek and this adorable dress caught my eye. I have not been particularly interested in trying a PDF pattern, but to keep myself well-rounded I decided to give this one a try. The sale price was $3.60.

Sunny Day Beach Dress by Katrin Vorbeck from Sew Daily pattern store

The fabric I used is from Andover Fabric’s “Moon Flowers” collection by Jesus Cruz. I am excited to showcase this fabric as Jesus is a local artist in my community. His fabric can be found at many independent fabric stores. Because I knew exactly what I wanted, I ordered mine at Michael Levine’s online store. Michael Levine’s is much more fun to visit in person, but sometimes convenience wins over adventure.

The armholes are finished with a self-made bias tape.

The neck yoke is one piece with a seam in the back.

The hem band is faced on the inside.

I understitched the hem facing at the bottom to keep the seam rolled to the inside.

LET’S BE HONEST:

1. After using my first PDF pattern, I’m not a big fan. In the future, I will only purchase a PDF pattern if it is a unique design that I love and it is not available in a paper format. I have no problem with, and rather enjoy, leafing through pattern books at fabric stores (OK, maybe I’m showing my age!) Also, I do not mind waiting a few days for a purchase to come in the mail; I have plenty of other projects I can work on in the meantime. Let me state, however, that I do understand one of the purposes of a PDF – it is a cost effective way for an entrepreneurial designer/sewist to sell a pattern. I think it is awesome that the internet provides this opportunity for enterprising individuals.

2. General thoughts on written instructions: Instructions that include illustrations from the established patterns companies are difficult enough to understand. I found the instructions accompanying the Sunny Beach Day Dress hard to decipher especially because there were no illustrations accompanying the text. I know I am at an advantage when I tackle a pattern because I can draw on my 40 years of experience and figure out what I need to do. While this dress is fairly simple, I’m pretty certain that a beginning sewist would have a problem sewing this pattern independently, especially the neck yoke.

3. I made one pattern adjustment. During my first try-on, the top of the back neck yoke stuck out from the base of my neck. I narrowed it a total of 1″ at the top, grading down to the original seam at the bottom. This created a slight V-shape on the back yoke as you can see in the photos. If I were to make this again, I would probably redraw the pattern a bit to make a nice curve.

4. The instructions called for 2 single-sided self-made bias tapes sewn together, outside and inside, to finish the armholes. I decided to make 1 double-folded tape instead. (You can ask me more about this if you are interested in making this dress.) The armholes turn out a little high into the armpit. I couldn’t determine for certain if this was because I changed the method or not. Neverthless, next time, I would trim out 1/2″ before from the armholes before applying the bias tape.

I love my Sunny Day Beach Dress, and I think Jesus Cruz’s Moon Flowers is the perfect fabric for it!

Thank you for reading this post, and please, ask me questions about the construction. I would love to help you if you decide to make this dress. Best, Lori