I seem to have stumbled into Selfish Sewing Week! Hooray! I love when my project links with some sort of sewing celebration. It helps push me to finish something when I otherwise would procrastinate. For instance now that it is getting dark so early I need to have my husband take picture on the weekends. So last weekend he took photos of my new dress. but I didn’t like the photos. Luckily he was home earlier tonight, so yay! New better pictures in time for the celebration!

Enter another Washi!

This one is even better than my last Washi Dress. Made with soft Cotton + Steel Spellbound I bought at my local quilt store. I’d originally fallen in love with this pattern in lavender, but my LQS only had this soft rose in stock. This is probably a better color with my complexion anyways.

I also added the sleeves from the Washi Expansion Pack and am totally thrilled with the fit of them! Usually my arm measurement is far far different from a pattern’s measurement, but in this case fit so well that I didn’t have to alter the pattern one little bit. Yes!!!

I also added about 2 inches to the length of the skirt.

It is a little hard to see in the photos, but on my previous version in Liberty the length ends at this odd point in the middle of my knee. So this version I aimed for just below the knee and when I wear it with my black shoes the length looks really nice. Those are the shoes I’ll usually wear with this dress. We were racing the daylight and the baby’s desire for dinner tonight so I didn’t change shoes after work tonight.

There is still one more alteration I’m going to need to make to the Washi pattern before I make it again. The neckline. It gaps a lot more than I’d like. I’m sure part of it is the FBA I added, but I’ve seen quite a few people have the same issues. I’d finished the whole dress and had to go back and somehow fix it.

This will do, but next time for sure I will be rotating the extra fabric out to the bust dart. Having to take out all the top stitching was a pain, but worth it.

Now if only the weather would cooperate. I really want to wear this fun fabric as much as I can before Halloween and especially when I volunteer for Mourning Tours. Victorian gowns and glittering ghosts seem the perfect combination when helping guests at the event. But we’ll see. I may need to dress in my full Victorian dress depending on where I’m stationed. If nothing else I can wear this once a week to work where it is air conditioned.

And look who is 11 months old! We sent out invitations to her Halloween 1st birthday party and I can’t wait to celebrate my funny and determined tiny girl.