With such glorious weather, Spring seems to have come early this year – which makes it the perfect time to stitch up some warm weather frocks.

Step 1: Spring Cleaning

For me, Spring is the perfect excuse to pull out some color. And cotton is a perfect fabric choice. Apples are more of a Fall crop, but this aqua/red/spring green novelty quilting cotton feels very appropriate for the season and caught my eye while I was digging through stacks of fabric.

[Quilting cotton used as an apparel fabric sometimes gets a bad rap, but as long as you pick the right project, it works beautifully. It is also an excellent choice for beginners since it behaves itself during construction.]

This was also an opportunity to do a little Spring Cleaning in the sewing room! All of the items used for this dress are leftovers, or stashed items that have been abandoned for quite some time. I just love it when that happens!

Step 2: The Wearable Muslin

Instead of using boring old white muslin, I decided to make myself a wearable muslin of Colette's "Parfait" dress from this leftover novelty print (I already managed to get a skirt and blouse out of the yardage so I was thrilled to squeeze all of the pieces onto my remaining scraps). I figured there were minimal alterations (if any) that would be necessary, so I took a chance that the dress would fit.

And thankfully, it does!

Step 3: Details

And I could not resist adding a few special touches.

My favorite finish for raw edges is rayon seam binding - not something I would normally bother with on a muslin, but this one gets treated like a real dress.

I also took the time to make two bound buttonholes on the straps.

And since I had a few yards of red grosgrain ribbon on hand, I added some interest to the skirt.

Step 4: The Finished Dress

So with just a little bit more effort than I would have put into a real muslin, I have a brand new dress. And best of all, it was made with stashed items!

Happy Spring, everyone! And have a peek through your fabric stash - there just might be a cute dress waiting to be set free!!