Made by a Fabricista: Liesl + Co Tropical Terrace Dress

All of the sudden it.is.hot in the south eastern U.S. and I am ready to wear breezy, easy dresses like this one all summer. I am over the moon with this dress, it was the perfect marriage of fabric choice and pattern....and that definitely doesn't always happen for me!

I snapped up this cotton shirting from Fabric Mart putting my request in as soon as I saw it listed. I loved the color scheme, I am a huge fan of royal blue and black. Also, I think its safe to say that I have a thing for palm tree dresses based on my October project last year.
So here I am again, wearing palm trees and loving it!

The shirting is all sold out but I think that its safe to say that any large scale novelty print or solid would work best for this dress. I tried making it up in a small scale plaid and I'm not as pleased with the out come as I was in this case. So I chose a few of Fabric Marts fabrics as suggestions...this challis is tropical and beautiful, this cotton poplin would be adorable with the border at the hem, and any of the solid color linens would look fantastic.

For summer, its ideal to have a light/medium weight breathable fabric that isn't sheer. It gets so balmy and sweaty here that its a must that I have dresses like this one that breath and move and allow flow of air around a body. And cotton shirting and linens are great choices.

The Liesl + Co Terrace dress is a pretty easy make, there are no zippers, no buttons, no closures of any kind and its cinched and given shape by the included obi belt. I love the shape, I'm an A-line fan and the slight stiffness of this shirting helps the dress hold its A-line skirt shape. The pockets are great of course and the instructions very well laid out. The only change I made to the pattern with my second version was to lower the bust dart roughly an inch.

I've already worn this dress to a party barn picnic, a birthday party and a kindergarten graduation, a fantastic dress can take you all the way through a bucket of events and keep going. This is definitely such a dress!

Thanks for reading!

Happy Sewing!

Elizabeth

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