Yet another variation on the midriff band, this one on eBay from Macajero for the unbelievably low price of $5.00. Considering I finally figured out what my first attack at the Hot Patterns Hippy Chick Dress would consist of (I woke up from a deep sleep last night with the idea — the leftover Liberty dot-swirl-star print twill matched with a deep red heavy cotton/lycra, and let's just hope I have enough of each), you'd think I'd be leaving the midriff dresses alone. Ah, but you see — this one is SURPLICE! The lure of the surplice cannot be underestimated, despite the inevitability of having to sew invisible snaps in them so that they don't come un-surpliced.
The red floral with the white bands seems very eastern-inspired, and is much better than the beige with a beige-ier ribbon, although I also like the orange and brown combo. You could even Lilly-Pulitzer it up in pink and grass green.
And while I'm nattering on about patterns, has anyone seen one for a pencil skirt with a very wide, convex waistband? I'm talking the kind that is nearly empire. I though I had such an animal, but the pattern I was thinking of was just very high-waisted, not waistbanded. I'm assuming you have to bone those kinds of waistbands so that they don't roll, and that the overall silhouette demands to be worn with bolero jackets, but I'm willing to make those kind of sacrifices for the greater good.
A Dress A Day 
I have found, to my sorrow, that I am much better off using invisible hooks and bars – usually trouser hooks and bars, at that – than I am using invisible snaps, but perhaps you are not giving to significant twisting and lunging in your dresses (what my dresses, at least, consider “significant”).And yes, you will want to bone the waistband (and some horsehair interfacing wouldn’t hurt, either). Remember that you will want to put some of the bones on at a slant, so that they’re not all up-and-down; it makes for a better shape.
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OK, I finally bought something you linked to. I hope you’re happy. *cough*Email me if you want to exchange a tracing.–Lydia
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Oh, and about the high-waist skirt, do you mean something like this? The waistband piece of this skirt comes about halfway up my ribs. It’s a lot wider than the illustration. I made this and just used a buckram interfacing. I’m not sure if this is this is the type of skirt you were talking about, though…–Lydia
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Ooh! Yes, that’s exactly the kind of waistband I was talking about, esp. if it’s wider than the illustration. I want to put a plain pencil skirt on it, though. Could I bug you for a tracing of just the waistband?
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There is Burda 8155 (view A). I think that has the waistband you want.-Kelly
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Thanks Kelly! That is very close, and I think I could alter it to make the waistband wider pretty easily. Here’s a pic for those of you playing along at home: Burda 8155 line view
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I know it is 3 years later, but for those of you who have just found this convo looking for a great high-waisted skirt… I recently found this one:VOGUE 8425http://www.voguepatterns.com/item/V8425.htm?search=high%20waisted%20skirt&page=7JUST WHAT i NEED.
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