I am unrepentant. Julie sent me this link, I liked it, I bought it. How often do you find dresses like this (and in a size to which I will have to perform minimal alterations, if any)?
Julie would like to see it in clashing plaids, but I'm thinking I'll start small. Maybe two shades of blue, or red and gray together, or different scales of the same color gingham, or maybe gingham and stripes together … or maybe, if I am feeling VERY extravagant, the same Liberty print in two different colorways. Like maybe Liberty "Robin", which comes in a blue and also this pink:
And, tangentially, is anyone else as fond of Murder Must Advertise as I am? The scene where Wimsey is dressed as a harlequin at the costume ball? I might have to go re-read that tonight, while I wait for this pattern to come in the mail …
A Dress A Day 
Wimsey is The Best Ever, and Murder Must Advertise is the best Wimsey that doesn’t include Harriet Vane. If you have Netflix, do check out the Wimsey series Dorothy L. Sayers Mysteries: Strong Poison (1987), followed by Have His Carcase) and Gaudy Night). In my mind, the definitive screen adaptation of Wimsey, with exquisite period details, especially the clothing.
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I have just discovered Dorothy Sayers! I got a used paperback for $.50 to take on a plane trip and loved it – it was one of the first Wimsey mysteries (“Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club”) and was published in 1921. The background was so interesting, filled with detail about shell-shocked soldiers and those who had been gassed in the war and yet many details were so relevant to today that it was always startling to realize it was WWI to which she was referring. Then I read “The Nine Tailors” and although I have no interest whatsoever in bell ringing, I still found it an easy read. So now I am determined to read them all.
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I recently gave Murder Must Advertise to a coworker as a gateway Sayers! Needless to say, she loved it.
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I’ve never read Sayers, but the dress is fabulous.
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Love that dress pattern. I’ve not read any of Dorothy Sayer’s books but my brainy, professor husband has them all in the library.
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I agree with star7girl7. I love that screen adaptation! I am now going through the books!
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and if you’re feeling really bold: wear the dress withthese harlequin tights from sock-dreams.com (I am not affiliated with sock-dreams but I wear their awesome socks!)
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There’s a marvelous series of audiobooks of Sayers’ Wimsey stories with reader David Case. Check at the library for it. If the first ten minutes of “Whose Body?” don’t make you grin in delight, I’d be very very surprised. (By the way, I’m linking to You Don’t Have To Be Pretty for my Discardian tip for tomorrow. Thank you for writing!)
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Love the panel on that dress! It reminds me of a dress my mother made for me – white, sleeveless, drop waist with panel inserts of red and white stripes, with matching stripes at the armholes and neckline. I wore it with red patent low heels (my first heels!) to my 8th grade graduation.
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I’d just make this dress in the same awesome color combo in the illustration. ’40s flashback, anyone? Fan-freaking-tastic.
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Never mind, I just took anotehr look at the hairdo on the fron: probably early ’60s flashback.
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Ooooh, what a great idea — a convertable wrap dress! That idea could be applied to any wrap dress, don’t you think? Like this one for sale now on ebay. If the front panel were done in black and the rest in white (or vice versa), you’d have something very haute mod — although I don’t know how you’d go about reversing the front. Anyhoo, it seems anyone could try making a harlequin dress without buying a another wrap pattern, if she has one she likes already. I LOVE those harlequin tights.
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Dorothy Sayers is, of course, fabulous. And Busman’s Honeymoon is one reason why my wedding dress was a gold silk!As to this pattern, I can’t quite figure out what’s going on with the skirt. Does it change color around the back, or is there just a little insert of the second color peeking out?
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Don’t you love dresses that give you an excuse to mix fabrics? It’s a common theme I’ve noticed here on ADAD. I’m thinking a texture contrast could be really interesting. Like a ligthweight boucl with a silk shantung in the same color. Yeah, good luck finding the matching fabrics. But we can dream!
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Oh, I think gingham and stripes would look so fun!
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As to what’s going on with this pattern, I think the back of the dress is also two fabrics with a seam down the middle, and the side views on the pattern envelope hint at the fact the right back is white and the left back is green (the right front is green and the left front is white).Very Harlequin, indeed.CMC
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I love Murder Must Advertise! One of my favorites of the Sayers masterpieces along with Busman’s Honeymoon as someone else so astutely mentioned already. If only she had written Murder of a Dress Designer!
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What a great chance to use two pieces of fabric which are almost large enough to do a complete dress. I love the almost counterchanged color very harlequin-like.I think any true wrap dress can be made lined & reversible, and the false wraps too, if both bodice pieces go to the waist. (So could a Duro easier than facings) In fact I’m planning to test that concept very soon now. Really, any day here I’ll get started on this… (My hold ups are testing-altering-making patterns, and that of the many fabrics I have, no two of the same size seem to work together.)And yes I love Murder Must Advertise, well up there among the Dorothy Sayers. And thanks for the clue about dramatizations. The only one I’d seen before was so dreadfully miscast as to be impossible.
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Murder Must Advertise! I must reread that. Now that I have actually worked in related fields, I think I’ll find the office humor even more wonderful than I did on first (or second) long-ago reading. Yay!
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Dorothy Sayers rocks. Murder must advertise is particularly fantastic. :)What does the back of the dress look like? Do the two colours meet half-way…?
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Hey! Clare of 3BT mentioned in her interview that your was one blog she was following these days, so of course, I HAD to see what A Dress A Day was all about…I must say that I love the concept of your blog! Its a pity I can’t use any of the ideas you give on the blog, since I’m Indian, and don’t really wear any of the styles you mentioned… Wish someone would be as creative with Salwaar Kameezes… Why don’t you do a feature on Indian styles too, sometime? Just a suggestion – do consider it…Do visit my blogs too.. and I hope you don’t mind me adding a link to ‘A Dress A Day’ on my blog.. Do let me know if you mind…
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I LOVE Salwaar Kameezes. I have one that an Afghan refugee gave me, and I wish every day that I could wear it without looking like I was asking for attention.
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Another vote for Murder Must Advertise; I think it’s my favorite next to Gaudy Night – and definitely the funniest. And her books are GREAT on audio; sadly it’s hard to hear tapes over the whirr of the sewing machine! I think I’m going to have to re-read DLS again soon, too.And I love the harlequin, and the Liberty print. It looks to me like lots of festive pennants…But I think I’d do two different prints in the same colorway, rather than two of the same print in different colorways. But I’m not as bold as you (I also like the idea of two different scales of the same color gingham – or houndstooth!!!)
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Ona different literary note – is the title of this post a reference to Harlan Ellison’s “‘Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman”? Just curious. Was kind of thrilled to see a random Ellison reference.
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I’m glad somebody is thrilled by my random Ellison references!
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Yes, you don’t often see Ellison and Sayers references in the same blog entry…Love the dress! Though I never have been able to wear a wrap dress gracefully, it’s a great concept. This would be a great basis for one of those Threads challenges where you have to whip up outfits for three diverse events from a group of odd fabrics. Make the back work the same way as the front with a cross-over panel, and make both halves both re-wrappable and reversible and you’ve got four dresses in one…
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rashmi, yesterday while cruising the vintage sites I found this 1950s Vogue pattern for a Sari dress, which I would so buy if I were 6 inches smaller all around. I’ve been looking for a good pattern using Sari cloth adapted to the Western wearer.A number of New York designers are showing dresses and tunics that the kameez and the kurta for Spring 2007. There are contemporary and vintage patterns available for similar styles too.
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Oh, I can see this in all black as a dinner dress. Half plain black and half black covered with black lace, with the lace perhaps just a *bit* sparkly. That way there’s only a textural contralst.Or maybe it’s a nice Sunday dress in half navy with big white polka dots and half white with big navy dots… Lots of possibilities here!
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Wow, was I not the only one who sent that link to you? That’s impressive.
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Love the dress, love your blog, love Murder Must Advertise! They’re always having tea in that book. It always makes me feel snacky. LOVE…ALL…WIMSEY!!!Dorothy
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Great design for the woman who needs to be dressed while lying down – such as a quadriplegic. Lay first half of dress on the bed, roll the woman into it and hook it, then do the other side.
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