Of all the new Jalies I made this spring I think I had most fun making the Michelle summer dress.

The Michelle dress and tank was that kind of nice construction surprise. Here are the pattern pieces and line drawing:

I made the dress. The skirt part was as expected- a big gathered rectangle set into the bodice in a waist seam somewhat above my natural waist, by say 2-3 inches. So raised but not empire.

The top part of this dress is fully lined. If you don’t want that much fabric, this lining can be cut off shorter to make as sort of all in one facing for the neckline and armholes. You might want to do this if you were just making the dress top as a tank top only, and didn’t want to figure out two layers at the hem.

Now you might think that making this top fully lined would be tricky with those kind of complicated bagging instructions those of use who have bagged vests might be familiar with, but in fact it is so easy.

I really can’t do the instructions justice here. Basically it amounts to sewing the front lining and front together at the neck and armholes, and doing the same at the back, turning one set to the right side, sliding one unit into the other, machine stitching across the shoulders, turning it all to the right side and then sewing the side seams.

You really need the pattern for the complete process if the above run-on sentence makes little sense.

The resulting bodice with this technique is clean and fast and definitely something a beginner could do successfully. As method it eliminates the need to finish the neck and armholes with facings or bindings too, which is a bonus.

Note that the front and back pattern pieces are identical, which makes matching the pieces fool proof, and because the neckline is very open there is no need for zippers or other closures.

I made my version with a navy print from Fabricville with little  birds printed on it. Because the fabric was so light the lined bodice was perfect as was the gathered skirt.

It seemed odd when we took these shots on a cold, grey May day here to be putting on something so bare. I am sometimes aware too that as I get older and am no longer a spring chicken that my arms remind me more and more of chicken’s wings but there are times and locations when something to wear in the heat are really important.

I also could see this as a dress, since this Jalie pattern comes in size 2 as in toddlers right up, I can make for the little and bigger girls. Definitely for summer sewing for children the fact this could be whipped up so easily means the Michelle is going to have multiple iterations around here.

I am thinking too I may even do a shell too for myself – how useful would one in white, self-lined be?