BurdaStye.com has a great printable pattern for a coffee date dress made by one of their fabulous users. It is a simple pattern that I just loved and having never made a dress from a pattern, I’d thought I would give it a go.

Off to my favorite local fabric store where I was hooked up with the essentials: fabric, an invisible zipper, and some hook eyes.

I was hoping this would be fairly simple because I have experience with sewing, but not with my machine. I have a little Shark by EuroPro that is the worlds lightest $12 paper weight. It is an incredible finicky machine, making this task a bit more daunting (hand sewing a whole dress!?! eek!).

I powered through and with the great instructions from the Selfish Seamstress, and Sew Serendipity on how to sew an invisible zipper (it’s just so easy!) I think this project came together nicely!

I added sleeves and a belt that has a couple stay stiches on the front. It ties the fabric together nicely and helps fit a bit better as my bodice is a little big. My next dress with have a better fitting bodice and hopefully a more unique neckline. I also plan on purchasing a pattern instead of downloading one (although this is a GREAT pattern for any first timer!).

I’m keeping my eyes peeled for a used sewing machine to help speed up this three week process. It took quite a while just to get going after realizing that this would mainly be hand stitched. Once I did get started, it only took a few hours to finish (that I broke up over a weeks time). Still, this was very simple without a machine. If you compare the $35 cost  of materials to what  I would pay on say, ModCloth, this dress is a deal!

Also being able to say “Oh this little number? It’s just something I threw together.” is always fabulous.