I wasn't really ready to make this dress. But a friend who had given me this beautiful African wax print was having a fundraiser for her Kenyan mission. I was helping with the fundraiser, and she asked the volunteers to wear African clothes if we had them. 

I had very little time, as usual, but I felt I needed to try to make this to please her. I have a couple sheath dress patterns in my collection. One I've made but the shoulders were way too large. The other I have never made. So I dug it out, and made a muslin. Dreadful fit. 

I decided to use my incomplete sloper. I had finished version 3 of my sloper, and the fit was still a ways off. The skirt was too big and didn't follow the curve of my hips. Something was off in the armscye that was causing wrinkles in the back. The bodice was close but the bust darts were not in the right spot and the front was a little baggy. 

Still I figured it was better than the McCall's muslin I had just finished. I decided I would combine the bodice and skirt to make a sheath and then cut large margins so I could just pin where I wanted. By this time, I had one day left to cut and sew. Good grief!

I cut it out, basted it together, and tried it on. Honestly, not too bad at all. The shoulders looked pretty good with the exception of some gaping. It was going to be sleeveless because of the time constraint and the fact that it's summer, and the sleeveless muslin confirmed that there is a problem with the armscye of my sloper. I tried doing some shoulder darts but it didn't work because there is only so much fabric in the seam allowance so I took them out and pulled up some fabric into the shoulder seam.

Now it's hard to fit oneself. Plus I was in a rush. I did what I could. 

The biggest issues were first, I forgot to remove the hem from the pattern when I cut out the fabric. I wanted the border at the bottom but since I didn't hem it, the dress is much too long.

Second, I ran out of time. I cut out some black bias strips to bind the neckline and the shoulders, started to put it on, noticed I had to leave in 20 minutes and take a shower. So I turned the neckline under and sewed it down. I serged the shoulder edges and hoped no one would look too close.
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​Look, I know it's a disaster. But I'm still pretty pleased that I got this close with that sloper. I know I will go back to the sloper project and get the sloper to fit properly. But do I go back to this dress and try to fix it? I can add the bias binding, but it will always be too long and a smidge lumpy. I don't think I'll ever wear it again. But who knows?

I made three skorts before I went to Hilton Head.

One was out of fabric scraps from the polka-dot dress I made. One was in some black knit I had in my stash. One was from a batch of fabrics I had bought for skorts. I had two pieces left to sew up to be done with that batch. I cut both out but only had time to sew up this blue and white one before I left.

I know. It would have been slick if I'd taken the time to center the diamonds. Whatevs.

Even though I was supposed to finish the other one I'd cut out so I could say I had finished one thing I started (i.e. using every fabric in that batch I'd bought), I expanded my scope.

​I wanted another black skort. I've had a lot of call to wear black bottoms in matches, and this pattern is so comfortable I decided to make it in black. I dug some fabric out of the stash and made the one below. It is comfortable. It's also too heavy for summer. It's fine indoors and when it's cooler.

Finally, I thought a skort made out of the polka-dot fabric I had made the Appleton out of would be cute. 

I didn't have enough so I had to piece the front, but I think it looks good. ​