Here’s the mystery project to which I alluded the other day, now finished! I’m calling it the Sugar Snow Dress. If I recall my Little House books correctly, a sugar snow is a snow storm late in the season which yields a surge of maple sap. As you can see from the picture, we’re just now getting a peek of sun after two days of snow, some of which drifted up onto my balcony.

The dress has a ruched upper bodice and a very full skirt which is actually just a dirndl, though I think it looks rounder. The dress is largely self-drafted, with a little help from the midriff piece of a vintage Advance pattern which was my inspiration. I think it’s significantly enough modified from the original though that I can post the pattern for download, which I will along with some more photos, maybe this weekend.

The dress is made of a lovely crispy, sheen-y cotton voile (my birthday present to me!), and the bodice is lined with cotton muslin. Just between you and me, the pattern is running vertically on the bodice, but horizontally on the skirt. I would have preferred to have it vertical on the whole dress, but that would have entailed putting a bunch more seams in the skirt, and I didn’t want that. The dress could stand to be a little more fitted through the bodice, as it is a tad roomy, but it’s not a bad as is. If I overeat at my next garden party, it won’t get tight. It was quite quick to sew up, with the exception of a bunch of hand finishing that I did simply because I enjoy hand sewing. I catch stitched the bodice lining by hand:

And blindstitched the entire endless hem by hand.  The hem is a delicious 5″ deep. I love a deep hem; it feels like such a luxury:

And I inserted the zipper by hand too, a brown vintage metal zipper that I had in my stash…

… and that I decided to use after this happened to my original stupid invisible zipper:

Grrrrr! Stupid invisible zipper takes so long to rip out of lightweight cotton voile!

Anyhow, keep your eyes peeled for more photos of the Sugar Snow Dress (who knows, I may even decide to twirl in it!) and a new free pattern, all coming soon!

Quick Update on the Sugar Snow Dress:

Sigh. It’s a good thing I put so much work into these things, huh? Hope all of mommy’s careful handstitching is giving you sweet dreams, Sasa.