Midsummer Dream: Merchant and Mills Ellis Hattie Dress

Today, I’ll be showing off my second Merchant and Mills Ellis Dress in a gorgeous Ruby Star Society fabric to make my dream dress come true.

I’ve mentioned this on multiple occasions but I love vintage Scandinavian fabrics. Something about the colour and prints is just magical to me. It sings to my soul. I’ve always dreamt of a day I’d find a hidden gem in an Op shop, in my size, and in the perfect silhouette. But let’s press pause of the dreams for now. The reality is, I’m in my thirties and this still hasn’t happened so it was time to take matters into my own hands.

When I made my way back to Harmony Provo one Saturday I just stood there staring at this amazing fabric from Alexia Marcelle Abegg. I knew this fabric. I knew it was from her Alma collection for Ruby Star Society. How did I know? Because I already owned this fabric in Navy. But when I saw it in this colour, Floral Sky, I just knew this was it. This was going to be my vintage midsummer dream dress. The one I had been lusting to find for so long.

I knew straight away I was going to use the Merchant and Mills Ellis dress pattern with the Hattie pockets at the front. I hadn’t made this pattern for over a year so I was a little nervous on fit. This mama has not been watching her size during this pandemic. Haha. So I started sewing it up and guess who had to do an emergency bicep adjustment. Luckily, I just had enough fabric to re-cut the sleeves! Phew! I added 1” total. I’ve been getting good at these so I’ll probably write up a post on that soon.

Everything else was really straight forward. I made the size 18, did the full bicep adjustment and slightly cheated on the skirt since my fabric wasn’t wide enough for the skirt pieces. The best thing I learnt earlier on in sewing was the power of the square. So in came the squares to the rescue for my skirt pieces.

To complete the dream, my husband finally got his wish and took pictures of me right near our house. We live up on the bench of the mountain so the photos fulfilled all my dreams and some. Can we give the dear husband a round of applause? He really came through. Well he always does but this made us both smile. You would never be able to tell that our kids were right next to us in an air-conditioned car yelling hello. Story for another time.

This dress came out better than I could have hoped and I will always feel like I’m floating on air when I wear it. What do you think?