Ellie & Mac Sunny Day Dress

I love the Ellie & Mac Sunny Day Dress. It goes together quickly and looks great on. It's the perfect summer dress. As I was getting ready to pack up and move, I often got distracted in my sewing room. I went through a bit of a sewing frenzy thinking I needed to sew up a bunch of fabric so I wouldn't have to move it. With my stash - that was a  joke. I mean- I'd still have to move my clothes - so what was the point. I think the point was I would rather sew than pack.

So as I went through my fabric, I did decide that I could stand to part with some. Other fabrics were kind of special to me or I had them reserved for something in particular. This fabric fell into that category. I got this fabric from my sweet friend Sneha. She used to live in the DFW area, but now lives far away in Canada. Ever since she gave me this fabric, I knew I needed to make something for summer with it.

Since I know I can whip up a Sunny Day dress in about 30 minutes, I went for it! I even attempted to pattern match and did pretty darn good. I immediately wore it and took photos there on the front yard of my now "old" house. Packing and moving kept me so busy, that I didn't have time to blog until recently.

I've worn this dress many times since I made it and it always makes me think of my sweet friend. I'll be visiting Canada on a cruise later this year. I'm hoping I can convince Sneha to visit me at one of my ports of call.

Ready to make a Sunny Day Dress or any Summer Dress? Ellie & Mac is having a Summer Dress Event! All dress patterns are on sale for an additional 20% off with the code SUMMERDRESS. Make any Ellie & Mac dress and upload a photo to their Summer Dress Event Album HERE to be entered to win a prize!

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Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. These links provide me with a small compensation if you make a purchase using my link. There is not cost to you when you do this. My thoughts and opinions given in this blog post are mine.

Ellie & Mac Sunny Day Dress

It's Wacky Wednesday at Ellie & Mac! Every Wednesday 6 patterns are marked down to only $1! This week I'm showing off the Sunny Day Tunic & Dress pattern.

And yes, I did make the dress version!

I really do love maxi length dresses and do find that I wear them often in the summer.

The Sunny Day Tunic & Dress is a super quick sew with only 1 pattern piece. The front and back bodice pieces are the same. The bodice is lined and the skirt is a rectangle that you are given the dimensions for.

For my Sunny Dress, I used fabrics from Zenith & Quasar. The bodice is a plush brushed poly in the Secret Garden print.

The skirt is a brushed nylon that is so soft. I just love the feel of the brushed nylon on my legs.

Be sure to check out all the patterns in the Wacky Wednesday sale HERE!


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Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. These links provide me with a small compensation if you make a purchase using my link. There is not cost to you when you do this. My thoughts and opinions given in this blog post are mine.

Nature's Fabrics Bamboo Spandex Jersey and a Hack to the Halla Sunny Day

Nature's Fabrics is having a sale on Bamboo Spandex Jersey! It's 15% off through September 16th! You will not find a wider selection of bamboo spandex jersey anywhere - they have so many solids and some gorgeous prints.

Are you ready for fall? I know I am. This Autumn Fox print is so adorable and perfect for fall sewing.

The bamboo spandex jersey was just perfect for the new Halla Patterns Women's Sunny Day Top & Dress.

The Autumn Fox is paired with the Soft Olive bamboo spandex jersey.

I also used the Soft Olive bamboo spandex jersey for this pattern hack to the Sunny Day.

I used a woven scrap I had in my stash for the yoke. Instead of cutting 4 yoke pieces, I cut two and cut them on a fold where the cut edge would be on the yoke for the center of the top.

 I also decided to add a yoke to the back of the top as well. For this I drew a line on the back pattern piece about 4" from the shoulder seam. I then traced the upper bodice piece and added 1/2" to the bottom where a drew my line. I then folded the back bodice on the line I drew. I cut my two yokes with the top bodice piece I made. I then decided to have gathers on my bottom bodice piece, so I folded my fabric to use the remaining width after cutting my front piece and placed the back bodice as far from the fold as I could. I then cut on an imaginary line from the fold to my piece. I gathered the top of the back bodice and attached it to the back yoke.

 I really loved how this came out! I plan to make a few more this way.  I also want to note that I had only 1 yard of the Autumn Fox and 1 yard of the Soft Olive bamboo spandex jersey. It's possible to get a size 10/12 graded to 14/16 hips out of a yard if you are short like me!

I then immediately had to make another hacked Sunny Day all with knit.

For this one, I used fabric that I designed. This is my Ernst Haeckel Bats at Golden Hour print from Spoonflower on Modern Jersey.

I used a Dark Brown Rayon Spandex for the yoke and sleeves.

I really love the curved hem on the Sunny Day.

 Check out all the amazing bamboo spandex jersey fabrics on sale at Nature's Fabrics HERE. There are 139 options! The bamboo spandex jersey is amazingly soft and the Soft Olive and Autumn Fox are a nice heavy weight at 240 and 245 gsm respectively. Bamboo spandex jersey is perfect for making apparel. It has very minimal shrinkage and wear well without pilling. The sale ends on September 16th! No code needed, prices are shown already discounted.

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Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. These links provide me with a small compensation if you make a purchase using my link. There is not cost to you when you do this. My thoughts and opinions given in this blog post are mine.

Halla Patterns Women's Sunny Day Top & Dress

The newest Halla Pattern is my favorite thing to wear right now. It's the Sunny Day Top & Dress for Women. The girls version has been around for awhile and everyone has been asking for an adult version and Samantha finally made it! I loved it so much that I made 5 during testing. I'll show you the three I made "per the pattern". Later, I'll make a new blog post to show you my hacks.

First off, the Sunny Day has a shirt length, tunic length, and two dress lengths. I made the shirt length on all 3. I made this one with the cutest fox bamboo spandex jersey from Nature's Fabrics.

If you didn't notice, the Sunny Day has a stylish split yoke. There's an option to add a trendy pussy bow to the neckline, string ties, or you can even add a hook & eye closure if you want.

The yoke if perfect for using those beautiful woven scraps that you just can't bear to part with. I used a remnant of a beautiful Ivy Jane print that I got at the Dallas Fabric District for the yoke on this top. The remnant was barely big enough to cut the yoke from. It was one of those fabrics that I bought with no good reason other than I thought it was too beautiful to leave behind. I'm so happy to be able to put it into a top that I'll wear over and over again.

The body of this Sunny Day is made with Dark Jade Rayon Spandex from Made Whimsy.

The Sunny Day has two sleeve styles (puff or fitted), each with 3 length  options (short, 3/4, and long), and 3 different ways to finish the sleeve (hemmed, elastic, or banded). I used the 3/4 length puff sleeve for this top and the foxy top. On this top I finished the sleeves with elastic. The foxy one has bands.

In addition, the Sunny Day has two hem options - curved or straight. I chose straight for the one below and curved for this jade and the foxy versions.

This top was my "toile" that I made with some poly jersey knits I had picked up at the Fabric district. I wanted to use something that I liked, but wouldn't be in tears if it looked horrible. I really loved it from the moment I tried it on for "fit" photos and was wishing I had been more careful with my pattern placement and lining up the design at the side seams. But I'll still wear this alot.

This is the long sleeve with a band. And below is the only photo I have that kinda shows the back. I really love that I can make the Sunny Day with a print and a solid and it still looks like a cohesive piece and not like I just ran out of fabric.

Speaking of fabric requirements - I found that I could make the 3/4 length sleeve version of the Sunny Day with 1 yard of 60" wide knit if I'm careful with my cutting layout. But - please not that I am 5' tall and my 3/4 length sleeves are shorter than the pattern by about 2". The length of my shirt is also about 2" shorter than the pattern.

The pattern is on sale through September 9th. Get 20% off all PDF patterns in your cart with the code SUNNYDAY at checkout. Buy it HERE!

Stay tuned for my Sunny Day hacks!

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Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. These links provide me with a small compensation if you make a purchase using my link. There is not cost to you when you do this. My thoughts and opinions given in this blog post are mine.