Sunshine yellow seersucker

Sunshine yellow seersucker

• 6.27.2010

It's finally looking like summer here in Oregon (my favorite time of year and favorite place to enjoy it in!).  The sun is out, not a cloud in the sky, temperature in the 80's.  I'm predicting another couple cold, rainy days before the consistent sunshine and hot, dry weather of July, August, and September, but for today it's sunny and beautiful out and I hope everyone is enjoying an equally lovely Sunday!
In the spirit of sunshine, I thought I'd share with you a summery dress I made the other day out of a cute yellow seersucker I found at Goodwill in the fabric section--a couple yards, I think, for $1.99 for the piece!  Sometimes you get lucky there.

I thought about what to make out of it and thought about something sweet with puffed sleeves, like this ModCloth number:

But in the end I thought it might look too sweet and youthful in the thin striped yellow and white seersucker.  So I went for simplicity and thought about the classic J.Crew strapless dress with skirt pleated into the waist.  I wasn't sure if it would be too simple in that style, though, so I thought about embellishment.  I remember the embroidered strapless dress from Anthropologie last season, the Airplane Wright Dress by Moulinette Soeurs:

And I had some leftover multi-color, including yellow and white, cotton crocheted granny squares from an old pillow project.  I thought about putting them, or some applique contrast fabric in flower shapes, at the hem.  But I wasn't sure.

Here are some other simple dresses with dressed-up skirts, this one from Anthro:

This from ModCloth:

And then there's the beautiful basics of J.Crew, this one in a textured fabric for interest with the super plain style.

I ended up making the dress in a simple style (I used this pattern (McCall's M5849, again--I use it a lot!)

But I pleated the skirt rather than gather it.  I thought I'd put the dress together and finish it, and decide later if it needed embellishment.  Here it is plain:

I like it, and I think it does have a simple J.Crew-ey feel, but if I wanted it to go more toward the Anthro side, maybe I should decorate the skirt.  What do you think??

I'd love to hear your thoughts, but don't spend too much time on it unless you're on the deck with a laptop--if your early summer weather is as nice as ours is!