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!

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.

The Other Half

A growing trend in womenswear lately has been the masculine look – borrowing garments, lines, and styles from traditional menswear, especially their cold weather offerings. I’m not sure how the gents feel about this borrowing, but that does make menswear fashion shows that much more important to us ladies!

And conveniently, menswear designers just wrapped up their Paris shows, premiering their Fall/Winter 2013/2014 looks. Check out the new looks for next season, courtesy of FashionTV’s Menswear channel on Youtube.

The Fabric in the Stone

“In every block of marble I see a statue as plain as though it stood before me, shaped and perfect in attitude and action. I have only to hew away the rough walls that imprison the lovely apparition to reveal it to the other eyes as mine see it.” – Michelangelo

This quote from Michelangelo has inspired me for many years, as I derive a great deal of my artistic inspiration from the materials I use to create. Below are some fabrics which I’ll be working with over the next few months, and the projects which I see in them.

Office pants:


Dress pants, perhaps cuffed and pegged:


Maxi dress:


Cocktail blouse:


Simple tee (or something like that):


Frilly, girly, tank top: