Southern Belle Dress

When my Grandma passed away she left a lot of sewing patterns and even a very old sewing machine from my Great Grandma behind that I inherited. My mom brought them over in a box and said "you're the only one that sews in the family so I thought you'd want these." To be honest, I was very excited about this stuffy box of sewing patterns. Many of them had little notes about what to alter and or take in and measurements of my mom and aunts as teens. It was fun to see what she was designing or working on based on what was cut out. My mom even said she remembers a couple of the patterns made for her. This vintage Simplicity 6888 was one of the patterns and I really wanted to create a Spring dress with it. I loved the ruffled puff sleeves and overall silhouette of the dress. When looking for fabric I really wanted something that had blue in it. While I love a colorful floral I didn't want a lot of bright colors since the dress had a lot of details. I'd been on the hunt for a pretty blue floral for awhile now and this chiffon fabric from Stylish Fabric was more than perfect. Even better it didn't wrinkle which made it great for traveling. 

I felt like a true Southern Belle while photographing this dress at the Shorter Mansion in Eufaula, Alabama. The Mansion is a breathtaking two-story structure built in 1884. They offer tours inside for the public. One of the rooms is a sewing studio complete with one of the first sewing machines ever made. On display you'll see many women and children dresses dating back to the early 1800's. I shared a lot of this on my Instagram story you can check out here.