I have this very special friend named Chloe. She is very high up on the list of the most interesting people I’ve ever met.
Some of the many fascinating endeavors she has endured are: being a world class triathlete, completing a 30 day silent meditation retreat (I don’t remember the name of the center but it’s world renowned), being a fashion designer for one of Australia’s most well known fashion brands Camilla and Marc, running her own events business (Black Chameleon), and most recently being a mom to an extremely special, gorgeous young boy with an equally unique condition that only 500 people in the world have. She is the most dedicated mother I have ever seen in my life and all of her close friends would happily agree with that statement. This woman is a force of nature and I'm so grateful we are friends.
Why am I talking about Chloe? Well, her birthday is coming up and I made her a dress.
More often than not I'm hesitant to give people things I make, because what if they don't use it? What if they give it away? What if it gets horribly stained or breaks? What if my craftsmanship doesn’t hold up???
Last year, for Chloe’s birthday I gave her a mug I made at pottery and since then she told me that she uses it every day. This touched me so much, that even if she never wears this dress and just keeps it in a drawer as a token of my adoration for her, it’s fine. Although, to be fully transparent, if that were the case, I know where she lives and I might creep into her house and snatch it. 💕😅 She wouldn’t press charges I don’t think.
Okay, enough gab, here’s the dress!!!
There’s an interesting story about where I sourced this fabric but I’m not willing to post it online as I don’t want my neighbor to be fully creeped out by me snatching her old sheets off the sidewalk when she placed them there for curbside clean up (a quarterly trash pick up service where everyone places their unwanted items on the curb for the landfill)…. oh shoot. Now you know… oh well.
I'm joking, I actually am pretty pleased that I breathed new life into some old sheets. They’re still in great shape, albeit a little discolored from what I assumed is face cream with benzoyl peroxide but I LOVE that! The patchiness of the discoloration is so even it looks intentional. Whether or not Chloe digs that will only be discovered at the end of the month when I hand the dress of for her birthday.
I sourced the beautiful pocket fabric in a 6 pack of vintage squares for $2 at an antique store in Battle Ground, WA, USA. I don't know much about them besides that they’re cotton with 6 different flower packet illustrations. I’ve been waiting for the right project to roll around and one night the creative lightning struck when I had my secondhand sheets out next to some lace trimmings for a bit of a brainstorm and the pocket fabric just jumped out at me! The buttons were such a happy accident because when I sewed the pockets on they BALLOONED out so badly I had to think of a quick solution.
Also, the hem has a pin tuck detail that I would have NEVER been patient enough to install!! Dunno if you can see it but one day I'll post some pics of the finished dress because obviously the pockets are only pinned on in these images.