Two-Tone, Always Two-Tone

This is such a great dress (from Out of the Ashes). I don't know what it is about two-tone patterns, but I love them. Maybe it's the buy one, get one free fabric mentality, or maybe I am not-so-subconsciously looking for an excuse to buy one yard cuts of fancy fabrics, but put a border or a shoulder piece or a whatever on a dress that justifies hours of agonizing fabric matching, and you can be sure it'll get my seal of approval (should I work one of those up, by the way?).

I love the slim sheath on the right -- not that the border print with the happy hat is not lovely, but the sheath seems more season-appropriate to me right now. I'd love to make it in brown with a deep pumpkin orange for the top contrast, or even brown and cream.

Of course the problem with my new fixation on brown is that I'm having the crankiest time trying to find the right shoes-that-go-with-brown. Why is it so hard to find brown shoes that don't have stupid metal details, horrible rubber bike-tire soles, or are pinchy? Anything that's even passable has three-and-a-half-inch heels, which, sorry, can't do (well, can't do for more than an hour). Why doesn't someone hire me to design shoes, I ask? (The fact that I cannot draw anything but amoebas shouldn't factor into it -- I'm sure I could have one of those Identikit artists help me out.) These are the closest I've found to the "right shoe" so far ...