my overalls: Marilla Walker Roberts Collection dungarees in gingham seersucker (plus lining) from Stonemountain and Daughter Fabrics

my top: Friday Pattern Company Adrienne Blouse in a cupro modal knit from Style Maker Fabrics

Penny’s: dress: Simplicity 1470 (made last year. pattern not available on website anymore)

Penny’s turban: self drafted

Penny’s Cardigan CottonOn

Both of our boots: Target

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I tend to write about how much I love my newest makes. But honestly, they’re not all winners. Some don’t turn out the greatest. I’ve been imagining black and white gingham overalls for awhile now, and was pretty excited to finally get to them. But in the end, these ones aren’t love.

I think it first started with my fabric choice. Instead of purchasing a new gingham print, I decided to use this seersucker gingham that I already had in my stash. And its sheer. So I lined the whole thing. Ok, no problem. But probably not the best coice for this type of garment. Secondly, I think I just chose the wrong pattern, too. I was actually envisioning a more fitted pant, but the Roberts Collection dungarees are a looser, relaxed fit. Not an issue with the pattern, I think I’d like the look in another fabric, just not what I was picturing for this project. I slimmed it out in the legs a bit after the fact, but it really could’ve stood to be taken in at the waist, too, to really slim it out and make it more fitted. And because I waited until the end to take out some bulk in the legs, the inside of the garment is kind of a disaster. I know this isn’t visible from the outside, but it kind of drives me crazy. And lastly, seersucker isn’t the easiest to work with when working with prints with straight lines. Seersucker is textured and bubbly, and as much as I painstakingly and carefully cut everything out to keep lines straight, the bottom edge of the bib ended up being skewed. HOW?! I’m still not sure how this happened. And I didn’t have and spare fabric to re-cut it. So I was left with an uneven line at the waist seam, making my eye twitch every time I look at it. This is probably the worst of the problems for me, because it is the most obvious. I know any one looking at this isn’t going to know that this isn’t the shape I envisioned or that the insides are messy, but you can see that uneven waist seam from a mile away.

In the end, it’s wearable, sure. It looked pretty cute from afar at the apple orchard, and standing next to P in her matching check print. But it’s not love. And when it’s not love and has too many issues, it probabaly won’t survive my closet. I have a feeling it will eventually end up in the scrap bin to try and repurpose the fabric. C’est la vie. Maybe I’’ll attempt the same look again some other time, with a different pattern and fabric weight.

On a brighter note, I also made this buttery soft Adrienne Blouse at the same time and it definitly IS love. Love this pattern. Super easy and quick make, and fits like a glove. I’ll be making more of these!

I also made Penny’s dress….. last year. When I made it, I purposely added a very wide hem. It’s wide and has a loose fit, so I knew if I was able to just unpick the hem and lengthen it later on, we would get extended wear out of it. And that’s what I did! A year and half and still going strong with this dress. It actually has some sweet little ruffles that are hidden under the cardigan.