While scrolling the internet for project inspiration I came across a blog post by Made for Mermaids. It was full of hacks from when they released the Sierra sewing pattern. There were several different hacks you could do with the Sierra, but one in particular caught my eye. They had mashed the Sierra bodice and skirt with the bishop sleeves of the Adaline dress pattern. I’ll be honest, I have never liked bishop sleeves. But for some reason, that mash up made me see them in a different light. I don’t know if it was the shape of the dress with the sleeves, or the way the sleeves draped with the skirt, but something about that look made me appreciate the bishop sleeves. So much so that I couldn’t help myself and I had to create that mash up for myself! Sometimes, I get a certain sewing project in my head, and then I can’t make anything else until I’ve made it and gotten it out of my system. That’s definitely how this dress was! Perhaps you can relate.

Time lapse:

I recently purchased this coral double brushed poly and had no idea what I was going to do with it, but the more I visualized this mashup dress the more this coral color was begging to be used. Once the fabric had been decided, the entire outfit came into view for me. The dress, shoes, jewelry, even down to the way  I wanted to style my hair while I was wearing the dress. It was all there, and I was ready to give life to this dress.

I was able to cut a medium out of two yards. Thank goodness because that was all I had! It took some careful pattern placement, but I was able to do it and even had a tiny bit left over. Yay scraps… I was all ready to sit down and sew this dress when a thought popped into my head.

“This would be so much better with pockets!”

Umm, Yeah! So obviously I had to do it. Remember those scraps I ended up with? They came in super handy just then. Since I was already using the sleeves from the Mama Adaline, I just used the pocket pieces from that pattern as well. Construction went fairly smoothly until I sewed the neckline wrong. That’s like step three, so maybe it didn’t go as smoothly as I thought. The instructions don’t tell you to make a V neck but for some reason, it made sense to me that you would do that so I sewed a V into the neckline…. Yeah, that made an upside down V when you flipped it right sides out. (facepalm)

I ended up sewing too late into the night and by too late I mean like nine pm. I found I was losing the ability to process the instructions the later it became. I finally decided I needed to be done for the night and I left it for the next day.

Fast forward to the next day and I was at it again. Once the bodice was finished (about half way through) everything else was a breeze. I ended up placing the pockets three inches below the top of the skirt piece. On future ones, I might bring that up an inch or so, but they work well as is.

I love so much the way this dress looks! I only have one issue with it and that is that the front neckline is a little lower that I typically like. I’m considering getting a white or cream lace applique and putting that over the front so I have a bit more coverage.  But other than that, this dress makes me feel like a superstar! I also feel like it’s a great look for spring. Bring on the warmer weather! I am so ready!

Thank you so much for reading! <3