Well, it's 2013 and it appears this is the year my children will contribute to the concerted effort to drive me mad! First, my youngest daughter had me making a ball gown for her. That's not a big deal, as I have done it before.
This dress, Simplicity 2253, was her gown for last year's ball at school. The "fun" part of this was that I made it without her ever being present for a fitting. I made a muslin, sent it to her and then we Skyped the fit. I made the dress and mailed it to her. You would think after all of that, I would have learned my lesson. But no. This year, she wanted this dress. And this year, there was no pattern. I looked and tried to find something, but there was nothing that was close enough. This looked pretty simple so I thought, with a muslin, I could make it happen.
So, I managed a "pretty close to it". It wasn't exactly what I wanted, but given the fact that I AGAIN had to make this without her being physically present, it was a pretty good effort.
And that was just what happened the first week of January with my precious time. I also had some personal projects of my own. I needed a red suit. Well, since I can be perfectly candid here, I have two red suits, one of which would have been fine for this event, but that never works for an obsessive sewists. So, one afternoon I head off to Hancocks to find a suitable pattern (because they had a sale of course). My daughter (the sewists) sent me several Vogue pattern options to check out. I happened to thumb through the Vogue magazine and this took my breath! I loved everything about this suit!
The funny thing is this is what Vogue put in the catalog. I would NEVER have given this pattern a second thought. The zipper openings seem weird to me, I don't really care for what looks like a coat, but again, has the weird opening and the suit version with the knee pants (what are those?) would not have motivated me to add this to my collection.And the skirt isn't even on the pattern drawing. BUT, this white suit version (above) was simply DIVINE to me and I had to have it for my event the weekend of the 26th! It had to be red. And as luck would have it, I had several pieces of red fabric in my stash that I thought would work. I settled on some stretch twill and it was perfect.
It really turned out well. I'm not sure why my collar looks like the wind is blowing, but it didn't look like that before the picture.
I knew I had to have these "fashion zippers" but good grief, they are expensive! I sure hate I don't live in or near New York or LA or Atlanta! I know I could have found these for a song in a more "fashionable city". Oh well, there is always sacrifice for one's art! :-)
I do like the pants on this pattern and will probably make them soon as well.
Time to think about the next project. I think it's going to be a blazer. I have this neat fabric I purchased from JoAnn's and it keeps beckoning me to come hither!
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