Tic Tac Toe

When I bought this darling Megumi Sakakibara fabric fabricworm.com‘s purveyors contacted me because the fabric left on the bolt was – no joke – 1 inch less than the 1.5 yards I had ordered. Did I still want the cut? Would I like some coordinating cuts to make up for it? Yes and yes, thank you! I loooove girls dresses with contrasting accents. I waited for the right pattern to cross my path for this fabric and its coordinating cousins. I thought the Tic Tac Toe Dress by Sewpony was it. I love the version with contrasting side panels and the version with contrasting pockets and the version with a contrasting bib. Are you getting the idea? I really like coordinating fabric accents.

I bought the pattern, went home, dug out the fabric and… I couldn’t see it. I sat on it for a while. I thought the thing holding me back all this time was that I hadn’t found the right pattern. It turns out the thing holding me back was that I don’t really like the coordinating fabrics. They’re OK, nice, perfectly fine, I have nothing against them, I just don’t really like them paired with the Megumi Sakakibara. I realized I was on a loop: as long as I was holding out for a pattern that would incorporate the coordinating cuts I was never going to use the fabric because I was never going to want to use the coordinating fabrics with any pattern that incorporated them.

Hmmm. All so pretty, but maybe not so much together?

So, what to do? I thought about the fabric. What did it want to be?

It wanted to be very traditional dress that has a peter pan collar and puff sleeves.

Pattern: Tic Tac Toe Dress by Sewpony
Size: 2T
Fabric: Megumi Sakakibara, Hana No Naka Purple

And here I bought this pattern because I liked its modern style. That’s OK, though, there will be others!

I’m honestly really proud of this one. I’ve never done piping before. Look how well it matches up! (After ripping out an inch of the seam of the one on the left to move it over a squidge). And it was so easy, too. I’ve never installed a zipper before. It went surprisingly well! I remembered afterwards that matching the waist seam is a thing to watch for, but I got lucky and it’s out of line by only about an eighth of an inch. I let it go.

This is a perfect Easter dress, yes? Too bad it’s 6 months too early. So unseasonal. Not at all appropriate for a trip to the pumpkin patch, even if the high today is 86. Should we use it now or save it for later?