Once Upon A Notion: Project Run and Play Week 4: Color Challenge

So this week's challenge over at Project Run and Play is color. You had to pick a color and use that color as inspiration for your outfit. So I decided to ask Erin what color she would like (thinking the answer would be purple) she responded - yellow. Yellow? Really? Are you sure you don't want something purple? No - yellow.
Okay then.
I have a teeny tiny amount of yellow in my stash but lots of purple. Purple would have been so easy and cost effective-lol. So off to Joann's I went to get some yellow. I purchased some Kona cotton in Corn Yellow and some cute yellow gingham not really having a particular outfit in mind. I did know that I wanted to make a cute dress Erin could wear for the summer. Then I thought: summer - sun - I know! A cute sundress that I will call: The Pocket Full of Sunshine Dress! Yay! I sketched out a few variations of how I wanted the dress to look but in the end I sort of winged it lol!
I drafted my own pattern for the bodice and just made a simple gathered skirt to add to the bottom. I was a little overwhelmed by the brightness of the Corn Yellow, so I added a sash to the bottom of the bodice using some yellow and white striped fabric I happened to have in my stash (that being the teeny tiny amount of yellow I had). I was glad that I remembered I had the striped fabric because it goes better with the theme of the dress than the gingham. Stripes - rays of the sun - much better than gingham. Anywho, I attached the sash directly to the bodice so it became part of the top. I also used the striped fabric to create straps for the dress and also to make the pockets.

front bodice pattern

back bodice pattern

bodice with sash

I knew I wanted to have two pockets on the skirt of the dress with cute little suns on them. I first thought I would embroider the outline of the sun with as cute smiley face right onto the pocket. Well that did not look as cute as I had hoped. It just was not that noticeable so I decided to applique the sun onto the bottom of the pocket and then use grosgrain ribbon for the rays. I still embroidered the face onto the sun because I thought it made it more well happy =)

happy little suns!

The straps of the dress gave me a bit of trouble. I sewed the straps directly into the back of the bodice with the idea of having them attach to the front with buttons. Would have been cute except that I made the straps too long. Yes, I could have just shortened them but then I had another idea - make buttonholes in the bodice to pass the straps through then attach the strap to itself with a button. But.... that did not work out either because the straps were still too long. So I decided to just tie the straps to keep them on. I am actually really happy that I made this mistake because I think the dress looks cute this way =)

the too long straps

straps all tied up

So despite the mistakes I am happy with how the dress turned out. It was the perfect dress to sew this week as there was no sun here. Cloudy rainy weather does not make for the best pictures though but I just had to take pics outside. I am so tired of being in the house so maybe this happy sunny dress will bring the real sun out play =)