I’ve got a sick boy at home today. After a nice long stretch ear-ache free, I had to claim him from school yesterday afternoon when he came down with a fever and painful ear. We’ve got the routine down pat now since he’s prone to them . He’s also well on the road to recovery, thanks to a full day of rest and all the popsicles he can eat (which is a startling amount, frankly! :))

I stayed and puttered about home today as a result and was able to finish the last of my niece’s summer sewing: a three-tiered halter dress from AS&E #83 called Ebele.

I’d given a sneak peek a few weeks back and it only took me a few hours to put all the pieces together when I sat down and took a solid run at it, since I had many of the components done but of course, I’d put it off, moving the pieces from dell to dale as I worked on other projects, cleaned up my sewing supplies and otherwise pretended that the half-finished dress was invisible. LOL.

It’s a nice little dress and I think the pattern would work for many different types of fabric and styles, not just the dark shades the original was worked in. I chose a cowboy/bandana print that resembles the inspiration fabric but rather than mixing my fabrics, I used the same fabric for the pleats and tiers because otherwise it was too difficult to match all the shades and avoid visual overload.

I also like how the designer handled the back of the halter dress. It’s a smooth, buttoned finish that works very nicely. Often, I see this type of dress done with elastic shirring or an elastic casing (that’s how the back of pink and white batiste top I made was done). Of course, it’s not buttoned on Stanley – he’s too big – but on my niece, it should look very finished.

The halter straps are simply bias strips so they sewed on very quickly. I wasn’t as careful as I ought to have been, since it is only a play dress, and so I have to admit there are a few small ripples 🙂 But I figure no one looks closely enough to be able to see it on a wiggling toddler that I can probably get away with it just this once.