Bonjour Soleil! – At the Ottawa Tulip Festival

The weather is absolutely gorgeous lately, and could not be better suited for the Soleil Dress Pattern Tour!  Lauren of Baste + Gather has just created her first garment pattern, the  Soleil Dress by Selvage Design, and let me tell you, it is incredible.  Not only is the design perfection, but the illustrated instructions have seriously raised the bar for all PDF pattern creators.  Of course, this isn’t surprising at all, in view of the fact that Lauren is THE. LAUREN. DAHL. of Pattern Workshop, the extraordinary series of online pattern making videos that took the web by storm just a few short months ago.

I had a blast sewing this pattern (even though I was all thumbs and had some major screw ups… all me, not Lauren’s instructions… ok, all me and a large glass of red on a Saturday night…ooops!).  I love how versatile the pattern can be depending on your choice of fabric.

I opted for a fun rayon that had been pre-approved by Alix who loved the graphic coloured pattern.  But before cutting into my fabric, I thought best to consult Lauren in order to see whether the rayon was a bad choice since it’s so light and stretchy.  She confirmed that I could expect gaping at the back… ugh… oh well, I went for it anyway in view of the fact that Alix loved the fabric so much.  And of course, gaping occurred, as you can see above.  But you know what?  Alix is crazy about this dress.  She wore it at the Tulip Festival on Sunday, then insisted on sleeping in it that night, and refused to take it off on Monday.  I think it’s a winner!!!

If you make this pattern with the fabrics recommended by Lauren, you can expect that the back opening will not be as large as what you see on my version here.  That’s the fault of my overly stretchy fabric as well as an unfortunate serger incident that forced me to shorten the bodice by over an inch (I’ll spare you the details but let’s just say that some fabric got caught and snipped by the serger knife… don’t drink and serge people!!!)

Oh, and just so that you know, the pattern comes with the option of a closed back too, which might have been preferable for a drappy lightweight fabrics like this one.

The yellow ribbing gives the dress a fun sporty look.  It’s from an old tank top of mine that I repurposed.

 

Alix and Gaëlle had so much fun exploring the gorgeous tulip beds at Dow’s Lake for the annual Tulip Festival.

 

 

 

Lauren, you should be extremely proud of the Soleil Dress pattern. It is stunning! I can’t wait to sew more of your amazing PDF creations!  I’m sure we will be seeing many more brilliant designs from Lauren Dahl of Selvage Designs.

Click HERE to buy your Soleil Dress.

(This is an affiliate link, which means that Lauren pays me a commission if you choose to purchase the pattern via this link. And that commission goes straight to buying more fabric for my stash, woohoo!)