Measuring Up to the Cutting Edge

Thanks to Helen I now have four yards of this fabric -- actually, thanks to Helen I now have the LAST four yards of this fabric, because I'm mean like that. But take heart! There are other colorways (some border prints!) of this adorable Yuwa scissors fabric available at PurlSoho, and it's on sale (which means $9 instead of $15, but hey ...)

It's only 43 inches wide, and I did only get four yards of it, so I'm not sure exactly what I'll make yet. (It may work for the same pattern as the infamous Target-curtain numbers dress.)

It might just be my monitor, but I think this colorway is very 1930s, especially with the old-fashioned scissors. I can't wait until it shows up ... I hope I can get my new sewing room organized before then, so it can hop right into the washing machine and onto the cutting table!

Did You Miss Me? I Missed You!

Sorry I've been awol for so long -- lots going on!

I hope to resume regular posting tomorrow, but until then, please enjoy/recoil in shock and horror from this fantastic fabric sent to me by Julie.



The more I look at this fabric, the more I want it. It says "Stunt Dress for the Cattlemen's Association Ball" to me (not that I've been invited). But, sadly, I don't know where to buy it online. Do you? Leave a comment!

Matchmaking: Fabric and Pattern

Somebody needs to take this fabric (from Pins-n-Needles' Sewing Emporium):




Here it is at a different scale:





And make this dress (from MOMSPatterns.com) with it.




Volunteers?

Wouldn't it look adorable with a red patent belt and flats? I love narrow dresses in linen-look fabrics. They're so elegant and summery. And I (as you know) am SO TIRED of winter. And inelegance, come to think of it.

To make it easier for you to fulfill my request, Jen at MOMSPatterns is having a sale -- you save 20% off your order from RIGHT NOW until midnight EST Sunday, March 29, 2009. There are new patterns in the SALE section and she's listed tons and tons during the month of March ...

Eh ... What's Up, Doc?

Those orange things on the dress above? They are CARROTS. Don't believe me? (Or the fantastic Angela, who sent the link?) Check it out:




It's from Etsy seller honeybeevintage, and it's TINY (and $65). But nutritious! (It reminds me of this, a little.)

Two quick sale notices:

-- Sandritocat is having a "Pre-Spring Cleaning Sale (but it's really a "I've got too many boxes of unlisted patterns sale")" and is offering 20% off plus the usual multiple purchase discounts on shipping, plus free shipping if you purchase three patterns.

-- Jen at MOMSPatterns (when she's not taunting me about how much warmer it is in Jacksonville, FL than Chicago, IL) is also having a sale, from now until the end of the month. Kindly use coupon code 'febsale' until Midnight EST Saturday, February 28, 2009 and save 20% off of any order. Jen am listing some DIVINE vintage Vogue patterns, loads of Viva-Las-Vegas-worthy designs, more New Old Stock children's patterns, and she has a dwindling Sale Area where patterns have been marked down to just $1.50. Note: If those aren't gone by the end of the month, Jen's donating them to charity ...

-- Oh, and check back in Friday (if not before) where I'll be announcing a SLIP GIVEAWAY from Vintage Hem. You know how much I love slips ...

Mambo Dress! Bongos!

Lisa sent me the link to this eBay auction, ending Saturday. Go ahead and click through, you really owe it to yourself to look at this dress.




It's listed by Fast Eddie's Retro Rags (Their motto: Vintage for Your Inner Delinquent) and, at time of this writing, was at a Buy It Now price of $175 ... Bust 38.

Forget bicycles and rulers, I am now feeling a distinct lack of bongo-themed clothing in my life. I am also saddened to realize that my inner delinquent is pretty much my outer delinquent, except my inner delinquent 1) remembers to PUT ON the red lipstick she bought and 2) never gets it on her teeth.

But Can I Measure Up?

I don't usually make new year's resolutions -- I mostly just try AGAIN to do all the things I really, really meant to do in the previous year -- but if I were to make a resolution for 2009, it might be NOT to buy new fabric until I've made a dent in the fabric I already have.

Okay, let's see a show of hands from folks who have also made this resolution, in any year. (Hollow laughter optional.)

Of course, on the heels of that resolution, Stephanie kindly sends me this:




Wouldn't this make just the cutest ever shirtdress? I would, however, draw the line (no pun intended) at pencil buttons, as I am not a teacher. (But if you wanted to, I wouldn't judge. I'm not a judge, either.)

What would you do with this fabric? I know it's not to everyone's taste, so "set it on fire," is a perfectly acceptable answer ...

New Fabric! (Well, New To Me)

(It's actually vintage, but it's new to me!)

I swear, folks named Rita are really good luck for me lately. Rita C. emailed me out of the blue and said "Not positive you would be interested in this bicycle fabric ..." Bicycle fabric! I don't think I finished the sentence before I clicked the link. I can't remember the last time I browsed fabric on eBay, so there's no way I would have seen this fabric without Rita's kind offices.

It was Buy It Now, too! Check it out:




It was from seller MarilynSue, although she doesn't have too much other fabric listed right now.

I love that this was marketed as a time-saver -- don't wait for your fabric to be cut, just grab a "pak" and go! This is the fabric equivalent of bagged lettuce (which I love, btw)! I wonder if it was sold at stores that didn't otherwise have a fabric department, like the crappy thread they sell in the grocery store -- or used to, I haven't seen a notions section in a grocery store for ages.

What will this turn into? Well, it's 4 yards at 35 inches wide, so probably a narrow shirtdress of some kind. When I know, you'll know!

Time Out

I am obsessed with this clock dress that Theresa sent me. It's already gone, of course, from Posh Girl Vintage ... and it would have barely fit me anyway (and by "barely" I mean, I could have zipped it up, maybe, if I could renegotiate that whole "breathing" thing with my lungs). If one of you bought it, will you tell me that you love it, and that you wear it every (suitable) day, and that you have given it a special nickname? Please?

The best part, of course, is that scrumptious clock print. I bet I could dig up the requisite clip art and Spoonflower myself some of that, don't you think? Should it be a big border print, like this one, or a smaller scatter print? Over red stripes, and or black and white as they are here?

As a joke, I'd love to wear this dress without also wearing a watch. (Which would, even as a joke, last about ten minutes, because not wearing a watch drives me nuts. I once bought a new watch at the airport because mine had broken in the car on the way over. And it was only recently that I stopped wearing a watch 24 hours a day, including in the shower [I have a lot of Swatch watches].)

Interestingly enough, the clock here is set at roughly 8:23, and not 10:10, as fakey watches usually are now. Which means (at least according to Google Answers) that the print is really and truly old.

While you're mourning the unavailability of this one, you might want to check out some of the other pretty dresses at Posh Girl ...

By the Numbers

Remember those nursery curtains I bought at Target? They turned into this:



It's Butterick 2626, the same dress as the one in this post. It's not ironed -- this is how it looks after being hung up wet from the dryer.

I didn't realize until I took the picture how ... prominent ... the numbers are on the bodice. In my mind, it's an alphabet dress, not a numbers dress, but I don't mind. (And since I'm going to be wearing this mostly for work, I hope I earworm everyone I meet with Dolly Parton's "9 to 5".)

It took me forever to figure out what buttons to use, until I remembered I bought fifteen packets of covered-button forms at the last Hancock's notions sale:


The covered buttons were EASY. There's a template on the back of the package and then all you have to do is get the fabric wet and put it in the mold. It took less time to make the buttons than it did to sew them on. (Just remember to check the orientation of the shanks if your buttons have a definite up-and-down ... a couple of mine are sewn on an angle for that reason!)

If I had it to do over again, I would, and with a glad heart, but this time I'd unpick the curtain hems BEFORE washing them; the sizing made the fabric stiff and in my haste I ripped one of the hems along the seamline, which made cutting-out a bit awkward. (If you have rips or stains in your fabric, you can mark them the way I do, with blue painter's tape -- it's stiff enough so that you can feel it from the wrong side but it comes off easily without leaving any sticky stuff behind.)

The obligatory "Let me show you where I screwed up" part is here:



The skirt has an interesting slashed/darted opening on the left for the zipper, and the right-hand side is supposed to have just a plain dart. Which I forgot to make. Which means the back skirt is not centered on the back bodice. To which I say: big whoop; I gave up being worried if people were staring at my ass a decade ago.

Here's the full back view:



Despite that annoyance and assorted others (if you remember, this is the dress where I turned front and back bodice gathers into darts, plus I had to let out the waist an inch, which is irritating on a skirt with side-seam pleats) I will probably make this pattern at least once more. It's so comfortable!

If you're playing "spot the pockets", they're set in the front skirt seam, between the third and fourth outermost pleats. Very convenient!

Spoiled for Choice

I'm so sorry I didn't post yesterday -- there were some internet-connectivity issues, and then there were some "I have to give a talk downtown" issues (compounded by the snow issues), and then there were the "back from a long weekend" issues. I guess I "have issues." (Except for issues of the magazine, which are the only issues I want to have. THOSE are still at the printer!)

Of course, any day on which I don't post is NOT a day in which I have NOTHING to post -- I usually have the OPPOSITE problem, as in, I could post so much every day that I would do nothing else. For instance, just in the last 36 hours or so, I was sent links to:

-- this incredibly cute squirrel-print sundress (sent by Julie)
-- a reminder that PurlSoho has new Liberty cottons in stock (from Rebecca)
-- a link to a wedding-perfect satin dress WITH POCKET (from Kai, and let's just see a picture of that pocket, okay?)




-- some paper art dresses (sent by Theresa)
-- an Anne Fogarty polka-dot midriff-emphasizing dress on eBay (sent by Robin, and let's just peek at that one, too, shall we?)





And there were several more links that I will save for another day. Aren't I the luckiest blogger in Blogdom? Thank you (and keep 'em comin')!

Crawly, but not creepy

Julie (at Damn Good Vintage) has this adorable snail-print dress up right now. It's only about $75 but it's teeeeeeny. Waist 24.

I love the little snails -- how could you not? And I wouldn't even mind the inevitable escargot jokes. (Although my favorite escargot reference is this one. [warning video link])

Don't the snails look as if they were drawn by Ian Falconer (who does the Olivia books)?

Here's Olivia:



And here's a closeup of the snails:



I think this similarity is deeply significant, but I don't know why. Or how. All I know is that if this dress were in my size (PETER PAN COLLAR, people, and POCKETS) I would own it.

This also reminds me that I have some really cute bug-print fabric that I bought to make my son a camp shirt, and since he has shown NO interest in me making him a shirt (or, in fact, me making him anything that isn't various complicated Star Wars costumes) I think the statute of limitations has run out and I can use it for a dress. Right? Right. (Besides, I think I bought six yards, so I probably have enough for both.)

By Jupiter!

Jen at Momspatterns.com sent me this link -- oh, yay for novelty print sundresses, especially now that the weather's warming up. If I had my druthers (and I have to admit, I usually do, at least when it comes to dresses) I wouldn't wear anything that wasn't novel in some way between Memorial Day and the Tuesday after Labor Day.

This one, of course, is a stellar example -- the neckline alone would put it in that category, but the pockets give it escape velocity.

It's being listed by Marie92001, and the starting bid is about $50 right now -- but it ends on the 27th, so plenty of time to get your bid in. It's B34, and the shipping cost is only $6.95 -- I *do* so like sellers who keep the shipping low. There's nothing worse than forgetting to check and then finding out that the shipping is twice the Priority Mail flat-rate box postage!

Anyway, the stars have certainly aligned for this dress -- I'm half-tempted to start googling solar system fabric, myself. Of course, to be truly geeky, you'd have to have a button-front dress with the buttons spaced like the planets ... if that would even work; I have a vague memory of doing a "relative distances of the planets" thing in fourth grade, where Mercury was on the teacher's desk and Pluto ended up being at the far end of the athletic field. So perhaps it wouldn't work on a dress. But differently sized/colored buttons probably would!

Buddha Dress

Marie-Christine sent this, and, alas, it's sold. (But there's plenty more good stuff where she found this, at Kitty Girl Vintage!)

I was going to make a ton of dorky jokes about this dress ("it's the 'one with everything'" etc.) but really, I just wish I'd known the woman who designed this ("Dorothy O'Hara" is the label, and she seems to have been a costume designer for the movies) or any of the women who bought & wore it when it was new. I bet I would have really liked them.

Of course, the other thing this makes me want to see is other religion-themed dresses. I'm assuming the Prophet, Jehovah, and Jesus are unlikely candidates for fabrics, let alone dresses, but surely there must be more-or-less inappropriate fabrics with Hindu figures on them, or perhaps figures of Greek and Roman mythology, and of course the Flying Spaghetti Monster ... I bet the FSM wouldn't mind being on a dress. If there were a religious-dress meetup, would the atheist dress be a pure black, or a pure white? The agnostic dress gray? Would the animists have trees and rocks and plants and things? Leave suggestions for other (irreverent, impious, I know) suitable prints for the various religions in the comments, if you like.