Ottobre Home Sweet Home apron dress (1/2012, No 4)

This project started out very tidy and with lots of promise: just the way I like things.  I was using up a bit of my Ikea stash from a few years ago, having found the right venue for lightweight cottons with a lot of white in them.  I had found an excuse to buy a new, narrower bias tape maker and had made up gobs of this yummy stuff:

Making your own bias tape is incredibly satisfying.  Iff you own a rotary cutter and Clover tape-maker.

Best of all, I'd found the perfect Ottobre pattern - something with only one piece!  If you're familiar with Ottobre patterns, you know that the worst part is cutting out the pattern pieces.  There's following a million crazy lines, tracing, adding seam allowances...enough to turn me off before I even get started, most of the time.

But this gem had only one piece.  And only one measly seam allowance to be added - on a straight line, at that.  How wrong could things go?

The catch was, this one's a bit of a bear (as my polite, midwestern mother would say) to put together.  The dress has a 3.5 yard perimeter that needs bias tape made, then basting, and then two more go-arounds to attach the tape.  Including four hairpin turns for the buttoned straps.  

So, you save time on the cutting but you pay in other ways.  Namely, when you try to go back over those hairpin turns the second time, to catch all the bunchy bias tape on the wrong side.  Yowzahs.  While this killed any hopes of having created a reversible garment (probably only I will regret not dressing my daughter in hippos, but still!), the outside is okay:

You think I look mad?  You should have seen my mom finishing the edges on this thing!

The criss-cross back is cute and leaves lots of room to move.

Appliqué provides a preview of the lining fabric.

The tape and lining fabrics are cottons from Ikea's kid fabrics.  The denim is from JoAnn.  The chic buttons which you can't really see (but trust me, they're awesome!) are from my local button shop.