Blood, Sweat, and Tears

Last year a friend of mine told me that all she wanted was a colorful summer dress, but that she was having a hard time finding one.  Well a year later, I decided to make her one.  So for her 30th birthday/thank you for being so awesome gift, I decided to make her Simplicity 2250:

Here's my version:

This is by far the most difficult project I've done.  I was very surprised because it looks like such a simple dress...well, looks were definitely deceiving!  This took me a few days to complete...I thought it would take 1, at most 1 1/2.  The bodice alone took me like 2/3 of a day to complete.  This is because I did mess up the pleats and had to rip stitches probably twice.  Also, I was originally going to make spaghetti straps.  After spending 2 1/2 hours trying to turn one strap right side out and still only getting it halfway done, I gave up.  Luckily, I still had enough fabric to make the larger straps.  All the pleats were a bit confusing, but all in all not too bad.  I think it would've been much easier if I picked a fabric I could actually see my markings on!!

She loves it!!: