Frock by Friday – Purple Tulips Tara

When I saw the cute tara dress from verypurpleperson, I fell in love with the Tara pattern and vowed to get some cute florals to make one very similar to hers. I started shopping on fabric.com and got a japanesy fabric that is perfect for this dress. Of course, in a pro-fabric-stasher fashion, I proceeded to purchase more than 10 yards of varies other fabric, all in the name of getting free shipping.

When those fabric came, I was in heaven. Once again my fabric is piling up to the wall (literally, I have all of them stacked up on a tall bookshelf). I got distracted and used that cute japanesy fabric for another dress. So when the sew-along from grosgrain came up, I banged my head against the wall — I dont really want to have two similar dresses from the same fabric!

So I took a tulip fabric from my stash, and took a good hard loop at those monstrous flowers. I had thought the flowers were 1 inch tall when I ordered them. Instead, they had grown during shipping and arrived at my door about 15 inch tall. But the tara dress is playful, and is probably the best chance this purple tulip’s got. I found a purple solid cotton poplin of the same weight and stretch for the top, along with a zipper in my stash, and made this (first picture is true color):

I really love it! I printed the pattern out at 91% as usual to compensate for my height (one reason that I still like online printing patterns even if I have to painstakingly stick them together!). I also cut the sleeves much much shorter. The cotton I used are stiffer than knits, so the sleeves would stick out like armors, almost render this dress unwearable. Luckily the solution was simple ! I also lined the neckline with zippers, inspired by this scrap recycle Tara dress. Unlike most other burdastyle patterns, the cup size for Tara fits me just right. I am used to wearing low cut tops on the weekends, so the low neckline isnt an issue with my girls. In fact, i think that one singular feature made my husband really appreciate this dress, even though it is made from a super funky print that is not usually his thing.

Today we went out for a picnic and a photoshoot,and this dress is perfect for a hot summer day.

I think I will make this dress again, especially when I am pregnant — look at this gorgeous maternity dress from fashion1! Doesnt it make you want to get a big belly?

More pictures as a result of discovering “make collage” function in picasa!