There's still some summer left ...

Holly at Lucite Box Vintage tipped me off that she is having a sale ... 15% off any item on the site using the coupon code madmen. The sale started today and runs through Saturday 8/22.

I am such a sucker for large-scale plaids and this dress is a doozy. Plus, it's B40/W29, which is a forgiving size ... especially for some of our more well-endowed friends. And only $60, or just $51 on sale!

I would wear this with little flat shoes and a white or pink cardigan, and an ice-cream cone. The ice-cream cone is the essential accessory for this dress. I recommend mint-chocolate-chip, the bright green chemical kind, for contrast, or maybe even rainbow sherbet, if you want to be all matchy-matchy. And a bicycle. I would definitely add a bicycle. A Schwinn "Breeze" by preference, but that's really up to you. (They come in yellow ...)

quite possibly perfect

Okay, so I bought another pattern from ebay seller tarna. I really couldn't resist this one ... could you?

Every summer I end up making the same pattern three or four or five times ... last year it was The Duro; this year it may be this pattern. It just looks so perfect -- the sweetheart neckline and the pockets are exactly right. I don't like the deep vee in the back but I can fix that easily by filling in the top and retracing the facing. This would be so easy to make, and even easier to wear. Throw a cardigan over it (I probably won't make the bolero) and it could go anywhere.

I have this lovely limp grass-green cotton open-weave that this will be stunning in, and some red floral, and some stripey pink seersucker, and maybe this will even be worth of the blue art-deco-y fabric I bought in China. Heck, if it turns out to be The Pattern of Summer 2007 I might even use the green Chaiken cotton satin I bought ages ago and have never been able to bring myself to cut into.

So: prepare yourselves. If this goes well you'll be seeing a lot of it.