From K - Simplicity 1877 Catnap Dress (the 2nd)

Nearly six months ago when Lizzy House announced her Catnap Dress Contest, I immediately dreamt up a Simplicity 1877 dress using a lavender coloured catnip print from her new line. After quickly realizing the contest required use of an actual cat print from the line, I switched gears to make this dress... but not before tossing this lavender catnip print in to my shopping cart.

Months passed but I still couldn't shake the dress idea from my mind, and my desire for a new dress for the Calgary Stampede was growing. So in typical last minute Kelsey fashion, I finally whipped up this dress 48hrs before my first stampede event of the season... even stitching the hem on my commute.

Since I had previously used the pattern and had the yardage on hand, I was able to sew this up in two (long) evenings, no alterations required.

For stampede I paired it with a brown leather belt, cowboy boots, and of course a hat, similar to how I styled my handmade stampede dress last year (shown here). Sorry I didn't seem to get any stampede pictures this year.

Last month when Amanda and I were back in Manitoba for a wedding, we both sported handmade dresses to the rehearsal supper and she took some photos for me afterwards.

I honestly can't say enough about how much I love this pattern. I wear my original catnap dress a lot, but this one is getting even more rotations in my wardrobe already. Great pattern, original fabric, what more could a girl want!

From K - Kitty Dreams Dress

I named this dress after the fabric line, but honestly this dress could easily be be renamed Kitty Kelsey's Dreams Dress as it's everything my dreams are made of and more. A dress with a wonderful fit, an amazingly whimsical print AND said print has cats, balloons, mice and butterflies no less!

When Lizzy posted about her Catnap Dress Contest last month I literally stalked the internet for a local shop (or even a Canadian online shop) that had yardage. Turns out no one in Canada had received their shipments yet from what I could tell so I bit the bullet and ordered from Stash Modern Fabrics about 10 minutes after the contest was introduced.

I then proceeded to pace around my house impatiently with my house cat Joey for nearly three weeks while it made the maiden voyage up to Canada. After customs played with it for a while, they eventually passed it along my way and I frantically started cutting, serging and sewing this week - and gosh was it ever fun!

Lizzy wanted to see how we would wear our kitties on our sleeves, so I sported this to my very corporate job yesterday, styling it with a blazer and some killer stilettos to show you that kitties can have a place in the office, even amongst the all the suits.

It seemed fitting to also show you how I intend to wear this out and about on weekends since I see this quickly becoming a wardrobe staple. I paired it with a cute pair of suede booties but I see moccasins in my future with this dress too! 

Right from the beginning I knew this Kitty Dreams in Grass print was just begging for some lime green pockets and I love the extra detail it adds. I'm quite certain that it's a commonly known fact that fun linings make everything 100x better.

The shoulder flounce on this dress is the kind of detail that makes me swoon. Simple, subtle, not terribly flashy but still unique. I might just need to add flounces to ALL my future dress projects now that I know how easy they are to sew.

Dress Details:

• Pattern: Simplicity 1877 by Leanne Marsh
• Fabric: Catnap by Lizzy House
• Thread: Gutermann in colour 792

I had such a great time making this dress and watching all of the other Catnap dresses pop up on IG (#catnapdresscontest and #catnapdress) and the contest Flickr page. This was exactly the type of selfish sewing I needed before getting back to sewing my gift list next week.

Linking up to Needle and Thread Thursday and Finish it up Friday.

From A - Kitten Dress

It's no secret that Kelsey and I love Lizzy House's fabric. A quick look at our stashes will reveal that we have at least a few prints from every collection. It'll be no surprise to you to hear that when Lizzy announced the Catnap dress contest in January, it took us all of five minutes to pick fabric and plan our entries.

I opted to make a dress for Kelsey's almost 2 year-old niece out of the Purrfectly Happy print in Raspberry using Made by Rae's super cute Geranium Dress pattern. I opted for view B with it's sweet cap sleeves and pleated skirt and added the notched neckline for fun. I used a piece of the Cat's Cradle print in Lemon to line the bodice and a few random Pearl Snap Source snaps I had kicking around to finish everything off.

As usual Rae's patterns are wonderful to make. The instructions are clear and there are tons of small details that make the finished product look "properly" finished. It's such a great feeling when something you make is as beautiful on the inside as it is on the outside.

Since I didn't have enough snaps in the same colour to finish this dress, I opted instead for an ombre effect, moving from a pale, almost white pink at the top to a hot pink near the bottom. I think after this project I am a snap convert. They look so clean and finished and are SO much easier to add to a garment than buttons and button holes. I also think that they'll make this dress a little easier to get in and out of for a certain busy 2-year-old.

Sadly no modeled shots of this one since my sweet little model is probably dragging her favourite baby doll around the house up in Canada while I enjoy the sun here in California.

Since her second birthday is coming up in the next month, I popped this little number in the mail earlier this week so that she will have it her for her actual birthday (with plenty of time to spare, for once)!

Hope this whets your appetite, Kelsey has a big dress reveal planned for tomorrow. It's a stunner so stay tuned!