Finished Diane Kimono Dress.

I finished a dress. And just under the wire as I plan to wear it this evening for my anniversary dinner. (Eight years, woop woop!)

I used AMH's Social Climber in Gold from her Hand Drawn Garden collection. I bought 1.5 yards at Crimson Tate almost a year ago, originally intending to make a skirt. (But this is so much better.) When I bought the AMH, I also picked up some Tula diamonds from her Acacia line. I just really liked them and wanted a bit in my stash, but when the two fabrics were cut and stacked on top of each other, I knew they were supposed to be BFFs.

I made the Diane Kimono dress from Sew Serendipity. As you can see, the pattern comfortably fits my third trimester belly, and I have a bit of room to grow. In hind's sight, I wish I had gone with a longer contrasting hem--I used the 1.5" option because that's all I had fabric for, but I think I would like the 3" or even the 5" a bit better. I used the fuller skirt option because, as you can see, I need a fuller skirt to accommodate Mr. Fava.

Kay, the designer behind Sew Serendipity, is super nice and awesome. My raccoon dress was made using her Naomi pattern, but I can't wear it comfortably right now, and I really wanted a fun dress to wear until I've returned to pre-Fava goodness. And since the Naomi was fairly easy to make for an inexperienced dressmaker, I emailed Kay to see if she thought any of her patterns could fit a preggo like me. Kay wrote me back ASAP and recommended this number. Thank you, Kay! Added bonus: this dress is actually the same size as my Naomi dress, so I should be able to wear it post-Fava as well.

Another bonus? This dress matches perfectly with my favoritest shoes ever. Of course, the four inch heels aren't anything I'm up to tackling for long periods of time in my unbalanced state, so I'll be wearing flats tonight, but later, you best be believing I'll be wearing these glorious shoes with this dress.

The worst part of sewing this was turning the drawstring tube right side out. (Seriously.) This dress doesn't take all that long to make, but that part took me FOREVER. (There is probably a faster way to do it, but I did what I could.) Thankfully, I had a friend over for tea yesterday, and I spent the bulk of our visit trying to pry the narrow bit of fabric out into proper fashion. Next time I make this dress, I will make the drawstring differently. But yes. There will be a next time. Though not any time soon. Oy. I have a lot of quilts to finish first.

On Sunday, I have an appointment with my very first quilting student. (I'm squeeing with excitement!) We're going to plot the project she wants to make and calculate fabric requirements with the goal of going fabric shopping on Monday. I might be more excited than she is. Okay, I'm not, but I think our excitement levels are pretty equal.

Have a happy weekend, y'all!