Sewing with Michael Miller Fabrics

I am back with another sewing project from Michael Miller Fabrics as a SewingPortfolios.com ambassador! I love teaming up with them because I get some really fun prints I would not otherwise choose myself (well, I *do* get to choose, but it’s from a specific set of collections). This project I chose a really fun print from the Paradise Dreams collection and a coordinating green to go with it.

I really love the loud floral Tropical Dreams print, even though that’s not something I usually go for when picking out fabrics for myself. I do florals. I do loud. But I don’t usually do them together (please don’t go looking back through this blog to prove me wrong; it’s something I *feel* like I don’t do without any real fact checking).

It is still a bit snowy up in my mountain valley town, so we headed on down to New Mexico for a bit of sun and sand (and cacti and rocks).

What did I do?

My original plan was to make a pair of wide leg pants and do a whole Palm Springs kind of thing but I didn’t get enough of the main fabric so I had to totally redo my project. Do I create something entirely new? Or do I revisit an old pattern that I love but haven’t paid much attention to lately?

I decided on recreating The Driehoek Dress in this fab tropical print to see how it would work with bold prints instead of the solids that I usually do. IT TURNED OUT AMAZING!!! I cannot believe how well this dress looks in a bold print! I love the scatter palm fronds and flowers; the entire print is very rich and saturated.

I used some of the green tonal coordinating print to make the lining and the hem facing and it swishes around and peeks out every once in a while.

I adore the triangle armscyes and the swing shape on Girly. The sun is IMPOSSIBLE in Northern New Mexico so we found a spot under a piñon tree against some pretty cool red rocks at a park in the Jemez Pueblo.

It’s a short, summery length and I can totally imagine her wearing this dress all summer long. In fact, once we loaded up into the Jeep again, she didn’t want to take the dress off and wore it for the rest of the trip home. I can’t wait to go on a proper vacation and pack this in her suitcase once it’s completely warm (don’t let the photos fool you; it was still pretty chilly)

We stumbled upon this amazing place called Soda Dam. Over the past few centuries, calcium carbonate from a spring bubbled up and hardened. The spring still is flowing underneath this dome and looks crazy scary. Don’t worry, we stayed far away from the side.