Make it Mini: Pontoon Dress Revisited

Hello! I’m happy to say that I’ve had some free time this week so I spent it sitting at my machine! It feels good to get back into the sewing groove again. These past weeks have been busy, busy, busy! Now that the kids are back in school I have a little bit of Me Time once again. Gotta say, it feels GREAT!!!!

Last post, I wrote about some fabric that I’ve ordered and was waiting for. One in particular that I bought was this really beautiful dusty lavender linen from Latvia. It took a while to deliver, but it’s here now. My iPhone camera does not do the color of my fabric any justice. It’s a little darker and deeper lavender in person. But it is truly beautiful!

I knew I wanted to make another Pontoon Dress with this fabric. My last dress was in linen as well, but in an off-white shade and in a midi length. I wanted this second one to be a mini length.

I won’t go into sewing details with this one because I already did in my first Pontoon Dress post, which you can read all about here if you like. The only thing I did differently was take two inches from the bottom of the first tier and left the whole dress unlined. I am very pleased with the outcome!

In order to make it mini, all I did was eliminate the third tier of the original pattern. I also mentioned taking two inches off from the first tier, and in retrospect, I think it was unnecessary. The dress would have ended up being mini enough with those extra inches.

I actually worried in the beginning that it was too short. I’m not an old lady, but I’m also not in my 20s anymore. The older I get, I admit the more conscious I am of how age appropriate my clothing is. This dress is very 90s babydoll in style (which I actually lurrrrv, considering I was an actual 90s teenager and wore babydoll dresses all the time!) Pre-hem, the dress was plenty short enough. I had to make the narrowest 1/4” bottom hem when finishing the skirt so as not to lose anymore length than necessary.

Outfit Details: Dress: Handmade by Gilly // Cowboy Booties: Coconuts by Matisse

I think I’m just going to embrace it. I may be older, (big 4-0 in three days!!) but it doesn’t mean I have to sacrifice youthful style because of age, right?

I’m so glad I got this dress sewn up with the quickness. It’s blazing hot here in SoCal and I need something light and airy and cute to wear in this scorching heat! How’s the end of Summer going in your neck of the woods?

xoxo,