Crowdsourcing Color Choices

Remember this pattern?



Well, I had a couple spare hours last night (Sure, I was sorry that my husband and son were stuck in traffic, but I wasn't going to let that stop me from SEWING with that found time) and decided to give it a shot:



And this is as far as I got. Which is pretty far, except that I need to buy bias trim for the edging, and I'm undecided as to which color it should be.

Colors I have ruled out: red, black, brown, gray, green, and (gasp) orange.

Colors I'm still thinking about: mustardy yellow, turquoise, blue, pink.

I'm looking for a kind of Palm-Beach, Lilly Pulitzer vibe from this dress. What do y'all think?

Here's a better look at the belt part:



I haven't done the buttonholes or the buttons, obviously, because I want them to match the binding. I zigzagged a facing to the wrong side, to stiffen it a bit and keep the edges from fraying too much.

And the neck:



Anyway, as you can see, the dress is pretty "eh" without the bias edging. It did sew up really quickly, though, which was nice. The skirt will definitely flap as you walk, showing the wrong side (which on this fabric is nearly white) so I'm almost convinced that I should line the thing, which would then (bonus!) make it reversible. I might have enough turquoise cotton to do that, and then instead of bias binding I could do rick-rack in the seam ...

I still have NO IDEA where the pockets will go. I think they will have to be patch pockets applied after the bias binding, so I can get the spacing right.

Ideas? Comments?

Vague Questions, Answered Vaguely

I want to say that someone emailed me -- recently, even! -- asking if there were a lot of patterns with sweetheart necklines around. Like this one, above. Except she didn't know the term "sweetheart neckline," and maybe just said "a dress like today's dress"? Which means searching for it in my email archive is futile. Anyway, if you asked, this is my answer, and it is available from Miss Helene's for $9.99, and it's a B37, so have at it!

Another Lisa (not Lisa at Miss Helene's) wanted to know why her finished sewing projects always look "homemade" to her eyes, when she compares them with garments she sees in the store. She says she's not an odd size, and she uses better-quality materials than the store-bought stuff, so why don't her garments look better?

My vague answer is that it's probably the pressing: I find that whenever I make something that looks at bit off for some undefinable reason, it's because I rushed through the pressing-seams bit. The more time I spend with the iron during construction, the better stuff looks. But I admit that's a vague answer and it could be any number of things, so if you have a better answer for Lisa, please let me know!

The last question for the day is from Lynn, who wants tips on how to organize her Brand! New! Sewing! Room! (exclamation points mine; I have a kind of punctuation hemochromatosis, where I must be bled of exclamation points at regular intervals, lest my major punctuation organs go into shutdown). I am still trying to organize my OWN sewing room, after two years in it, so I'd appreciate any hints on this topic you care to give. I told Lynn to go look at Posie's studio as inspiration. Any others come to mind?

Other vague answers:

"Yes, mostly."
"If you want to think of it that way."
"Could be; I'm not sure."
"Let's try it and see what happens."
"I thought that's what s/he said."

Apply freely to your own questions!

Can't Fight It

There is absolutely no chance of me wearing this dress before, optimistically, April 1 (no foolin') but I saw it at Toinette's at Ruby Lane and could not stop myself from hitting the "BUY" button. Really. And you can see why, can't you? (And yes, I'm seriously considering the ruffly version hanging ghostlike there on the right. Wouldn't this be lovely in black, with white organza ruffles?)

This came a few days ago and it's been hovering on my desk ever since. I keep picking it up and sighing, while listening to the scrape of snow shovels on ice outside my window. If I hold this pattern up to my ear, I can hear -- faintly, how faintly! -- the song of the ice-cream truck and far-off illegal fireworks, instead. All summer in a few pieces of yellowing paper.

A commenter yesterday suggested that I goose the charity campaign along by posting some drabbles BEFORE we hit the goal, and I'm game. In fact, I will WRITE SOME TO ORDER. Here's how to play: send me a link (a LINK ONLY PLEASE, please do not attach the actual picture) to a vintage dress and I will choose three from all the ones that are sent to me by midnight Central time tonight, and write drabbles for those for tomorrow through Friday. Sound good?

I'll also try to set up that Paypal button later today.

In the meantime, if the widget below doesn't work for you, here's the link directly to the ChangingThePresent page ...we're up to $1060! Thank you!