At the end of May I went on a mini-vacation with P and my parents to a little house by the sea. It was the first taste of summer and a wonderful departure from the hectic life in the city. When we needed a break from the sun we visited a few different second hand stores nearby. In the hot attic of one of them I found this white thick cotton fabric that called to me to become a summer dress. It might have been a tablecloth in a previous life. I washed the fabric and let it dry in the sun. There is something so relaxing about fabric drying in the summer breeze. I had bought the Alder Shirtdress printed pattern a while back and already knew I wanted to make one for the summer. Since the fabric had stripes of flowers I wanted to make something with it that didn’t require too much pattern matching. Right around the time I bought the fabric I was on some kind of shirt-making high so it felt like a good match.As usual with indie patterns I was between sizes, I had recently made an Archer Shirt so I went with the same size. The bodice ended up being too tight so I unpicked it and sewed it with a smaller seam allowance. This fabric was not made for unpicking. Every time the needle hit the fabric it punched a rather big hole. So I covered the holes up with topstitching on both sides of the side seams.Another problem with the heavy fabric was that it was a bit challenging to gather the skirt. On the plus side the gathers stayed really well in place. When wearing this outside for the first time during this photoshoot I also realized that the thickness of the fabric doesn’t drape well in the skirt at all. For example when I bend down the skirt stands out pretty much parallel to the ground. For this reason I think this dress will mostly be used to the beach or with leggings underneath.I also think I could have fitted the bodice better. I have a large back and ribcage which made me have to adjust the sides but I should have kept the original seam allowance by my waistline. I’ll try to fix that for my next version or make a full back adjustment (I think that is a thing?).I am really pleased with my pattern matching on the pockets. I love it when the hem matches up after sewing on the buttons.I didn’t have enough fabric to pattern match the yoke though, but I think it’s alright anyway.I accidentally sewed on the collar upside-down. So the under collar is flowery and the upper collar is mostly white. I think this is for the best though since it matches the white button placket. I really like the yellow buttons I found that matches the yellow flowers perfectly. They have square holes that I thought was unusual. I was one short though so I used a green one too. This is also a design choice I have made on a few button-downs I’ve sewed. I’m really glad that I found this fabric in a second hand store and barely had any scraps left over. Zero Waste is always awesome! Happy Midsummer!