Guess what I decided, and all in advance too?  To make Aria an Easter dress!  Last year I sewed my first dress ever from the Sis Boom Marissa pattern.  Totally an enjoyable experience.  The pattern is very well done and Aria makes it easy lacking those hips and other "ahem" curves that pose a challenge in my case.



The dress has that pretty gathered empire waist embellishment.  Last year I added a coordinating band of fabric in the skirt for fun.  But, this year I'm thinking of doing something different with the skirt.



It's the quilter in me... I want to use more fabrics, of course.  I was thinking of composing the skirt of several prints, making wide vertical stripes.  Because the skirt is very gathered, the stripes would get narrow as they feed into the waistband and gradually become wide towards the bottom.  I've seen skirts like this, but not a dress.  I wonder if it would look odd as a dress?



Here are some fabrics I've pulled so far.  I wanted to use the Flea Market Fancy pink seeds and Aria fell in love with the pink and brown Peacock Lane prints.  I tried to choose very like-minded prints for the skirt so that it won't look clown-ish.  The seeds would be the bodice and would also show up in the skirt.  The dark Kona Espresso is at the center for the gathered waistband.  But, I'm not sure that's a good idea.  Do you think I should go with a cream waistband?  My mama instinct laments that cream would be easier to stain, but sometimes you've just got to take risks.  I feel like there might be too much going on here.  On the other hand, I think the striped skirt would be so fun!

So, what do you think?  Is the stripey skirt going to be too much?  Should I go with a layout like last year instead?  And, any thoughts on waistband color?

Psst... I'm on the Quilting Gallery today to talk about how to shop for a sewing machine.  There are also 2 articles from other quilters.  I'll be sharing about the next step in my sewing machine shopping adventures here real soon.  Promise!