Making Fireworks!

I have been wanting to make a 4th of July dress for some time now.  I have purchased a few fabrics for that purpose, some a little more subtle than others.  I had a dance party that was encouraging patriotic outfits, so I decided to go quite literal by using these two fabrics:

I had visions of what I wanted to make and was planning on using the Colette Moneta.  But, as it turns out, I only had one yard each of those two cotton lycra fabrics, which isn't quite enough for the Moneta.   So, I decided to colorblock a Seamwork Mesa again and created a sketch of what I was envisioning.

Once I had a sketch that I liked, I basically just followed the same steps I did for my rainbow Mesa a couple years ago.  The main difference in my process this time is that after I printed out two copies of the front dress piece, and taped it all together to make the full front piece, instead of cutting up that piece, I just drew in the lines I wanted for my two sections and I traced each piece onto Swedish tracing paper, then added the seam allowances.  That way I still have that full sized front piece to use for the next time I color block the Mesa.  (Spoiler alert: I already have the next one planned and sketched out.)

Ripley loves to help!

I cut a neckline band out of the blue and white, but then thought it might look cuter with a red and while one, so I laid it out to see and decided that was the way to go.

I also usually put bands on my sleeves too, so I just made them opposite on each sleeve too.  I really love how the dress turned out.  I was a bit concerned that the "waving" line would be hard to get to lie flat, but I didn't have any problems with that at all.

I managed to get the stripes to line up pretty well on the left side.  The right side, not so much, but it's the shorter seamline for the stripes, so it's not all that noticeable and I'm not concerned about it.

I like that I can just cut out each piece double with this pattern to make the front and the back of the dress without needing to modify each pattern piece separately.

We didn't leave the house, other than to take these photos on the actual 4th of July.  But I went to my party on the 5th and got a ton of compliments.  I like the way this dress turned out and I'm glad I finally have a patriotic outfit to wear for when the occasion calls for it.