Being a stay at home parent to two kiddos under 4 can lead to some challenging days.  Some days I deal with it gracefully and then other days I am crying to my husband over google hangouts while he is trying to work.  Not a proud mommy moment but when it comes to naps I depend on them and the little bit of a break I get in a day.  Today was definitely one of the crying days when naps just weren’t happening.

Once the kids finally went down, one on the couch and one in the guest bedroom, I knew what I needed to do to change a bad day around.  Make myself a dress!  I had a preschool meeting to go to this evening and it is always fun to have something new to wear when you are going somewhere without the kiddos.

With the weather warming up I have been itching to make a maxi dress out of this amazing blue and white jersey I got from Girl Charlee.  I knew the Out and About Dress by Sew Caroline was the perfect pattern for it.  You may remember when I proclaimed my love for this pattern and all things peplum here.  I honestly didn’t think I could love this pattern any more than I already did, but this dress proved that I didn’t even know the half of my obsession with it.

Seriously people this pattern is amazing and so versatile.

If you remember this pattern is for a dress with sleeves but since I was going for a comfy summer dress I decided to just leave the sleeves off and finish the neckline and arms with a double needle.  I couldn’t believe how easily this pattern came together, I managed to get it cut out and sewn long before the kids woke up from their naps.

There are many times when I am sewing a pattern that I am reminded of just why I love making clothes for myself.  Making this dress was a perfect example for the value of making your own clothes.  I may not be super tall but at 5’9” I am tall enough that maxi dresses are usually not quite long enough for me, I always end up with sort of an ankle length dress.  But when you make your own dress you can control the length and that is such an exciting feeling.  I actually was overly generous and hadn’t accounted for the skirt weighing the dress down and ended up taking 5 or so inches off the bottom so it wasn’t dragging on the ground.  But what a great problem to have, a too long dress.

My preschool meeting wrapped up early tonight so I was able to pop over to my neighbours driveway and snap some pictures.  Don’t you just love unlikely places to do a photo shoot.

Little did I know my husband was spying on me from our upstairs bedroom and I managed to catch this picture of me seeing him watching from the window.  While not the most flattering picture of me, it makes me giggle when I see it because posing for pictures does not come naturally for me, and having an audience makes me even more uncomfortable.  I think it would have been worse if the neighbour had come out and caught me in his driveway 🙂

Have you ever tried making something for yourself to help change a bad day around?  I say do it, it doesn’t have to be a dress but I promise you that when you are done you will forget what you were upset about and feel so much better.