Today I'm participating in the Staple Dress Blog Tour that's been happening all week long to celebrate the fact that the Staple Dress pattern is now in PRINT! The tour wraps up today over here and at Sew Caroline, so thanks for stopping by! I'm so lucky to know April Rhodes (the designer of the Staple Dress) in real life; she is such a dear friend. She has to be one of the sweetest and most authentic human beings on the planet. In addition to a huge heart, she has a great passion for sewing, and she is clearly focused on creating lovely, basic patterns so that others can share her passion, as well.

The Staple Dress has been a HUGE hit this year, and it's easy to see why: April's directions are easy to follow; she adds helpful hints along the way; and the pattern pieces are well-designed, with just the right amount of ease. It's obvious she worked hard to achieve a great fit here. I'm thrilled that there's been such a great response to this pattern, and I'm even more excited about the new patterns she has coming!

Today I wanted to show off my latest Staple Dress creation (you can see the top I made for Spring Top Sewalong here)!This dress was made with a clearance rayon I randomly found at a tent sale a few years ago for $2/yard. It's a polyester rayon (not cotton like the rayon challis I talk about in this post from earlier this week), so it's not quite as soft and lovely and flowy as the cotton rayons, but I just couldn't pass up this print. Have you ever had that moment where you're staring at a fabric, and you can't decide whether the print is really awesome or completely ugly? Yeah, that. But I'm so glad I didn't pass it up, because about a year later the eighties decided to come back, and now this kind of thing is totally hot again. Who knew? (Not me. I'm the person who scoffed when I saw skinny jeans come back into style. *ducks and looks sheepish*)

Anyway, I personally think the Staple Dress looks amazing in rayon, since the flowy nature of the fabric helps give it a great silhouette, and I love how this turned out! It will be perfect for a date night since it's a wee bit scandalous on me in the Length Department, which means Mr Rae thinks it's perfect (Note to self: you are roughly 2 feet taller than April. Plan accordingly next time and add a few inches). It's not TOO short, because I almost always wear my dresses with leggings or skinny jeans underneath, so that's probably how I'll wear this one more often than not once the weather cools down again.

I made the pattern with the hi-lo hem option (there's also a straight hem), which I love; the dress went together like a breeze, and I even surprised myself a bit by sewing French seams on the entire thing -- yes, even around the pockets. Extra nice.