Planning to Fail = Guaranteed Success!

I'm not sure this fabric and pattern are a good match, which means I can only be pleasantly surprised by whatever turns out (assuming I can wear it). The fabric is a two yard piece of rayon or cotton challis, about 54" wide. It's super drapety (yes, I made that up) and after washing and drying it's gotten a little wrinkly. It's a bit sheer and the scale of the floral print is quite big, with big spaces between motifs.

It's that last fact which makes this such a hard fabric to do anything with. Regardless of one's actual size, large motifs with lots of space in between make one look huge-normous. Sometimes this can work, but it's tricky business. However, sitting in my stash won't change the fabric into something more flattering, so I'm forging ahead by combining this fabric with a Suede Says pattern by Simplicity (2222).

I'm doing look A in size 20, minus the chest ruffles. I'm not sure I want chest ruffles, it's a little too uber-girly for me. I'm going to cut larger than the pattern is to allow for French seams and my ample hips, but I don't expect to make any other modifications. I've already read through the instructions -- love how the pictures are separate from the words, for those of us who know what we are doing -- and I think the pocket construction and waistline treatment are quite clever. So I'm looking forward to make a surprising success ... or something I can sell at my sample sale later this summer.

Oh yeah -- I'm having a sample sale later this summer. Or maybe later this month. Stay tuned and I'll keep you posted!

I Want So Badly To Be Good

I love the details on this dress, I love how well it fits and moves, I love how easily it went from sketch to pattern to garment, and I loved styling it with so many different patterned elements – purse, shoes, cardigan, and earrings. The more patterns, the merrier! I guess that’s my inner rebel without a cause expressing itself.

I’m a public school girl, so I never wore a uniform – but this dress definitely has that Catholic school uniform look, to my untrained eye. What do you think?

At any rate, Catholicism in my mind will always be associated with Madonna (sorry Pope Benedict!), so I took this blog’s title from her song Girl Gone Wild, and I’ve embedded the video below for your viewing pleasure. I know I shouldn’t be shocked after all these years, but … she definitely had my jaw on the floor with this one. I love Madge!

Paprika Bites the Dust

Do you remember my beautiful Paprika dress, which was coming together so perfectly? Well, unless I lose about seven pounds, it’s going to have to stay a thought. After all that hard work, I closed up the back seam to find the dress is way too tight in some areas, and way too long in others – and I can’t go back to fix them without undoing hours and hours of work. I simply don’t have the heart for that right now, so I’m putting Paprika in the failure pile for now, and moving on to other things.

But it’s okay! Failure and mistakes are part of sewing. And since I know how much you loooove my modeling photos, here’s a consolation prize: a really funny video that I made one lovely unemployed day in my youth.

La Robe Paprique

I’ve got a new dress in the works!

It’s based on McCall’s pattern 5971, a pretty and simple dress with details that make it the perfect dress block for every body type to wear in every situation. I’ve made this dress twice before, making little tweaks each time. This time, I was inspired by Gertie’s version of this dress, to make the whole thing a little more fitted than my previous versions, especially in the waist and derriere.

Change up the fabric from a mid-weight woven to a sheer knit, and now you have something casual and slightly alluring; use a mid-weight knit in a bold color and wear leggings underneath, and now you have something funky and youthful. Make it in black wool and line it with silk (as I plan to, eventually) and you have the ultimate little black dress. The darts in back allow for shape over the derriere, and the box pleats in front easily cover a full belly or abdomen. The princess seams in the bodice make for a snug yet comfortable fit around the upper torso, and the sweetheart neckline is just defined enough to be sweet without being saccharine. Can you tell that I love this dress?

To finish the sleeves, I turned the edge under twice and laid ribbon on the right side of the hem as I sewed through the folds. I didn’t even cut the ribbon off the spool! I find that sewing ribbon from the spool minimizes waste. Anyway, I love the effect so much that I’m going to do the neckline and the waistband seams the same way.

The box pleat on this pattern is quite deep, as you can see in this picture. Isn’t this fabric fabulous? If I’d looked more closely at it when I bought it, I would have purchased more. I bought it almost five and a half years ago from Fabric.com, my absolute favorite online source for fabric. Now that I am sewing daily, I get to finally use the fabrics I spent years accumulating. New clothes and stash reduction! It’s exciting.