Back to sewing -- a racerback knit dress

I was away from my Husky (my completely unoriginal nickname for my Husqvarna Viking Lily sewing machine) for two weeks while the kids and I (and Sonia and Erin) visited Mom and Dad in Texas.  While we were there, Erin and I ended up at Hobby Lobby where I bought two yards of some cute light jersey knit with dreams of sewing something for Charlotte and Sonia when I returned to Michigan.  I'm finally back, unpacked, and ready to sew.

I saw this sweet tutorial and pattern for a simple Racerback Dress and finished it up in a morning of (mostly) uninterrupted sewing.  Charlotte said it was "bee-yoo-tee-ful" and refused to take it off, even though the temperature outside is barely in the mid-60s.

(Yes, my house is currently a disaster because we have Peter's clubhouse/tent upstairs so the kids can practice for our camping trip this weekend.)  I told Charlotte to strike another pose after the first picture and this is what she came up with.  I'm not even sure how she gets her little rubber legs into positions like that.

It's hard to see because of all the awesome polka dots, but there is a separate yoke on the back of the dress and the back is supposed to be racerback-shaped.  I made the 5/6 size from the pattern, but Charlotte's skinny little torso doesn't fill out the bodice very much.  It goes on and off very easily.  Next time I make this pattern, I will use a contrasting color for the bias trim around the neck and armholes.  The pattern showed pictures of the dress that way, but I didn't have any other knit material in a similar weight that would have matched very well.

Probably should be making the kids lunch rather than blogging about this dress, but they're not whining about being hungry yet.  Time to start planning Sonia's sundress (I want to make a different pattern, just for fun) out of the same material!

Here are a couple of more shots of the dress in a better setting:

Oooh -- update!  I sent in a picture of the dress to Pretty Prudent (they ask people to show them creations they have made from their tutorials) and they featured it in a roundup of projects made by their readers!  Here is the composite pic they posted of the project (which really makes me wish I had taken a some better glamor shots of the back!):

How fun!