Dresses made with FS Faille Cotton in Melinda Cream

Dresses made with FS Faille Cotton in Melinda Cream

In recent months, I’ve really been trying to break out of my sewing comfort zone. I love florals and neutrals, anything with ease and elastic, especially a flowy dress. I’ve lately made a lot of bright colors  from new patterns and silhouettes that have challenged me, so when I got my hands on some of the floral cotton faille, I felt like I could breathe again after a pasta dinner in tight pants. 

This week has been very rainy (in Tampa, FL, you’ve got at least a 50% chance every day that you’ll see rain in the hottest months), and what better activity could I do than sit inside near a window and listen to the rain as I make myself a billowy floral dress? 

Dress made with FS Faille Cotton in Melinda Cream

Dress made with FS Faille Cotton in Melinda Cream

This was my first time sewing with cotton faille, and I was surprised at its structure while still offering a really soft hand feel and light drape. It’s structured enough to create something fun like a fitted pair of wide leg trousers but still pleasant enough to be on a baby’s skin as a woven dress.

There’s something that feels so classy about a cream and blue floral, and it always draws me in; but this one has butterflies too, which solely contributed to an “add to cart” moment, knowing that my toddler would have a hay day counting the butterflies on our matching dresses.

Dresses made with FS Faille Cotton in Melinda Cream

Dresses made with FS Faille Cotton in Melinda Cream

Now, back to my sewing comfort zone talk.  If you go in my closet and look for the most concentrated area of “me mades”, it without a doubt would be my long dresses. I have two little girls, a 3 year old and a recently turned one year old, so my ability to accomplish much sewing during the day can be limited, especially on a rainy day where we’re mostly confined to inside.  When I sat down to make these dresses, I knew that I wanted easy, happy projects that we could dance in together while it was still raining.  A rainy day craft project, if you will.  I got quite lucky, because both my girls loved taking turns on my lap while we sewed up our dresses together! 

I chose to go with the By Hand London shirred dress tutorial, which is one I’ve made on many occasions before – namely for baby showers and for pregnancy announcements.  It’s a simple tutorial with a big payout – a shirred dress that requires no additional notions, making it easy to slip in and out of, dance in, nap in, and whatever else your heart desires to do in comfort and style simultaneously.

Dresses made with FS Faille Cotton in Melinda Cream

Both my daughters are on the go from the moment they wake up until it’s time for them to protest bedtime.  They both love a good dress-up opportunity (I wonder where they get that from!), so I opted for some easy self drafted dresses with tie straps at the top and an elastic band top.

Arguably the best part, other than the gorgeous hand feel of this cotton faille, was the laughter of my toddler as she “helped” me finish her sister’s dress as we got ready to have our cookies and tea for our living room dance party. I’ve always loved rainy days, but they’re even better with good company and cute matching dresses.

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