"Eggplant Purple Retro Reproduction Dress" or "How I Stash Bust"

Once again I've made a Retro Reproduction dress!  Surprise! Surprise!  This is another circle pocket version made up in corduroy.  The length of corduroy was left over from a project last year and I didn't have enough length to cut out the front and back of the dress so I slashed the front across the breast and added piping.  This is a great way to eek out another dress from a small or odd shaped piece of fabric.  

The piping and bias tape are me-made and are the reverse side of black and white striped fabric.  I started to use the right side but didn't like how sharp the contrast was, when I turned the fabric over I realized the stripes appeared to be gray which I loved.  This is one of the sewing tricks I like to use when I'm not 100% satisfied with a fabric in my stash, I just turn it over and see if I like the reverse side or "wrong" side better.

 I'm thinking that the next iteration of this dress might just have to have some gather or pleats on the center front under that slash line...  The bottom is bias tape finished and that adds a little extra length that this growing tidbit needs.

 You may notice those awful bug bites on little girl's arms and legs - those are from the massive amount of mosquitoes in our back yard.  We have battled and battled those darn critters but they are the meanest mosquitoes I've encountered.  They care nothing about any kind of "gentle" kid friendly repellent.  Hopefully they will subside soon when the weather cools.  

I just had to include this picture of little bit bending down, it really puts me in the mind of Eloise Wilkin drawings.  Her illustrations are always my favorite.  Well, here's to one more Retro Reproduction dress to transition into fall, I'll say it again, its such a quick make that its really sew little trouble to add pockets and bias tape.