Mini Mod Dress

Have you heard?  Kelly of Sewing in No Mans Land has started releasing patterns!  I was super excited to get to test her second pattern, the Mini Mod Dress.

As she mentioned in her post about the release of the pattern, there were a few hiccups along the way and I have a couple additional versions of the dress that will have to wait for Lisi Loo to grow into them that were made before the sizing was perfected.

It's a really cute, easy shape with options for belting and adding elastic to the sleeves and waistline.  The color blocking isn't part of the pattern, but simple enough to add.  The whole dress is really simple, actually.  I think my last one was finished, cutting pieces to wearable dress, in under two hours - and that was with the color blocking!

If you've been around for a while or perused 2013's Gallery, you may recognize this blue/green combo of Joann linen-looks.  I used the same here and here.  I'm obviously a fan of this fabric.  It comes in really rich colors and is a nice quality for a very reasonable price - especially with a coupon, or when it's on sale which seems to be quite often.  Don't worry, though - this was the end of my stock of these colors.  I'll be moving on and out of my comfort zone.

The pattern includes pieces for a belt and belt loops, but I kept it simple and just threw her brother's belt on for effect.  She and I were both pretty tickled with the effect of brother's belt, though.  Not that these pictures show it.  Argh phone!  Blessing and curse.

This was my first time testing a pattern and I found it interesting to take a little peak at what goes on behind the scenes; how many revisions and tweaks it takes to get a pattern just perfect in every size offered.  So much work!  I totally think it was worth it, though, in the end.

(By the way - I was given the pattern for testing, but no further benefits were received.  Opinions are all mine.)