Summer-y Dress

I only have a small amount of dresses, plus a few skirts and nicer shirts, enough to change things up for church every now and then.  But the thing is, just about everything is made of a thick and or/synthetic fabric, and mostly with long sleeves.  We're in Texas, where we've been getting temperatures in the nineties on and off since early April, and lately we've been getting close to or above 100!  Can you see how well insulated clothes are extremely impractical?  So a more summer-y dress would be appropriate, don't you think?  Unfortunately, I don't have much money in my budget for a dress, and even the options available for a reasonable price show WAY more than I want to show!  Enter creativity!
Several years ago, I purchased this Simplicity pattern from Walmart, I've seen it recently too, which makes sense because it's a fairly easy project!

I made the longer one with the long sleeves with he flounce when I first got it, and although it turned out all right, I was newly pregnant with my second child, who would end up coming out over 10 pounds!  So you can imagine how that dress didn't fit me for long.  Then we moved and had to get down to bare bones everything, so the homemade dress didn't make the cut.

Fast forward to this "spring," though it's felt like summer for months now!  I really wanted to make a more summery dress and this pattern goes nicely with my very limited sewing skills.  Then I looked through my bag of tricks and found a bed sheet that we had gotten at Walmart for $3 a while back, and had intended to make curtains out of it, but we moved and our window needs changed.  I really liked the color, so I spent a day and a half (with many interruptions) making this:

This is before I thoroughly ironed it, but it was so breezy and kept me so cool, did I mention on the day I wore it to church, and then all day and outside for a long walk it got up to about 103 degrees!  And I wasn't nearly as sweaty and miserable as I would have been otherwise!
You know the most tedious part about this dress?  The tie straps!  They tie in the back since it's a pullover dress (no buttons or zippers!  Yay! But I think I sewed the fabric for the straps with a little too much of a seam allowance, so they were a PAIN to turn inside out!  You could also omit the straps entirely and just wear a nice looking belt, or have a little more leeway in the form of your dress. 

I plan to use this pattern again to make a more casual dress with a floral print and regular short sleeves.  I may have to wait a while since I don't have and florals in my scraps, so I just have to fine some floral sheets or some  $1/yard fabric.
I'm really happy that I saved that pattern!