I think I have mentioned here that I'm running this conference, but I don't know if I mentioned that I'm also blogging about it on my OTHER blog, Dictionary Evangelist.

So if I don't manage to post here tomorrow, that's because I'm busily posting over there. Don't worry, I'll come back …. but in the meantime, feel free to check out Something Completely Different!

Oh, and enjoy this eye candy, courtesy Nora Needles … click on the image to visit the eBay auction.

Seriously. You leave me nice comments, you send me fun links, and now you buy me fabric. Anna at BootyVintage saw this amazing fabric on eBay, noticed that it was "BuyItNow", decided that no one but me deserved to own it, and bought it right there on the spot!

I *am* the luckiest woman on the planet, dontcha know?

Of course I paypal-ed her posthaste, and soon this amazing fabric will indeed be mine, all mine. Fabric I did not even know existed, and is my favorite color green, to boot (so many alphabet fabrics are pale blue and pale pink, for the nursery).

So now I just have to find a pattern that will let me put a giant "e" right at the center front, and I will have achieved alphabet-dress nirvana.

Oh, and this dress? Arrived MONDAY. Not that I've had time to do much more than gaze lovingly at it in stolen moments …

Reader Rebecca has written in to ask for help identifying a song about a dress (she found me through this post, I bet).

She says:

I heard the song on the Thistle and Shamrock NPR show years ago. The story of the song seemed to be a girl asking her mother what dress she should wear, and the mother offering various reasons why she shouldn't. I believe in the last verse they come back to the dress from the first verse, and realizing that there's nothing else to wear, the girl and mother finally agree.

She's already googled the heck out of it … anyone know it out of their actual heads?

(The image is just a random piece of sheet music from eBay … not the song being hunted.)

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.

I was actually helpless in the face of this pattern (from seller tarna). I couldn't NOT have it, despite having recently organized FIFTEEN comic-book-boxes of patterns. This pattern is basically my kryptonite. Gathers over the bust? Square neckline? Pockets??? IT HAD TO BE MINE.

And, thankfully, nobody else on eBay seemed to want it (well, one other person wanted it, but not as much as I did!), so now it is. Mine. All mine.

My only regret is that it is nearly certain that it won't arrive before my next New Dress Opportunity, which is next week (although I probably won't have any time to sew before said opportunity, sadly).

The only thing I think I'll change is the length of the sleeves. I like mine to be a bit more cap-sleeveish, and hit above the biceps, so that when I'm lugging big boxes around (which I tend to do a fair bit) I won't split them. Not that I'm in actual danger of splitting the seams, not being either the Incredible Hulk OR Popeye, but I do like to maximize mobility. You never know when some errant radioactivity (or can of spinach) will change your life FOREVER.

Also, I cannot wait to see how the facings are done on the neck. Do the shoulder pieces fold over, and is there a separate facing for the bodice piece? I think it's going to be really interesting, in the sewing-engineering way.

Oh, I hope this gets here SOON!

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.)

Despite my own penchant for bright grass green, which I would venture to guess is the Anti-Goth color (brimming as it is with life and vulgar cheerfulness), I have a not-so-secret fondness and admiration for the Full-On Goth. I really, really love Goth fashion, in all its varieties, but probably my Favorite Goth is the Lady of the Manners, who runs Gothic Charm School. (That's her, right there on the left.)

And because the Lady of the Manners has such exquisite fashion sense, she is often hindered by the lack of availability of certain items, since manufacturers are either unaware of the demand for such things, or unwilling to cater to those so far avant of the garde. So she asked me for help in tracking down a particular fabric, and I, in turn, am asking all of you.

Does anyone know of a source for black and "cupcake pink" (see why the Lady is my favorite Goth?) WIDE striped fabric? The stripes, ideally, would be more than 3/8th of an inch wide.

The Lady of the Manners needs at least five yards, because the envisioned dress includes a bustle. (Oh, my heart!)

It has been suggested that the Lady of the Manners buy black and WHITE fabric, and dye it, but, perfectionist that she is, she is afraid that she wouldn't be able to dye it evenly. So she waits for the right fabric to come along.

And — this request got me thinking. If I put up a quick-wiki/bulletin board page of "fabric requests" would you folks visit it, both to post requests and to help fulfill them? Does such a thing exist anywhere else? I wouldn't provide any kind of ecommerce support — you'd have to email each other and make arrangements for sales and swaps yourselves — but would simply having such a space be helpful? Let me know in the comments.

Janet (of zimmersarmy) sent me this image. Doesn't it look like this poor woman would rather be holding a dead wombat that a sewing machine? Of course, those things are heavy, and maybe the illustrator used a model who was thinking the whole time, "I don't want to drop this on my foot!" Except she was probably thinking that in German, and I'm terribly sorry, but the several years of German I was exposed to (I can't say 'took', because it obviously didn't take) did not equip me to express that in German. I'm pretty sure the words wollen and Fuss are involved. And possibly nicht. Given my track record, though, if I were to put those words together, it's more likely than not to come across as "Please, a foot I do not wish to be."

It's unfortunate that the ad makes what was probably a kick-ass machine look as if it smells awful.

Also, after resorting to a German-English dictionary, I feel ALMOST confident asserting that hausschneiderei means "home dressmakers". The translation of the rest of the ad I leave as an exercise for you, dear readers.

Several of you sent me a link to this PatternReview review (by moss) of the Butterick 4790 wrap dress. (You may have to log in or join PatternReview to read the review — I can't remember.)

Please stop for a moment and enjoy the pure, unadulterated awesome that is this dress, okay? No, really, stop and take it in. Ahhhhhh.

It's really such a good dress, and I'm ashamed to say I haven't made mine yet. (It's the not knowing where to put the pockets that is holding me back.) And in spending time tidying up the sewing room this weekend I discovered I have at least three copies of this pattern (I guess I bought it every time it was on $1.99 sale, thinking I'd have to really fuss with it to solve the pocket problem) so I really have no excuse.

I had no excuse to be tidying up the sewing room, either, given all the other stuff I should be doing right now, but it had reached that stage where small children would wander in and vanish without a trace (except, late in the night, you could sometimes hear the sound of someone furtively using expensive sewing shears to cut paper), and it was making me itchy. So I finished sorting out all of my sewing patterns into binders. Expect a picture when I find my camera-battery charger. In the meantime, while you're waiting, go click on the image above to read the review of this pattern.

Doesn't this pattern (from Linda's Sew Be It) look just SO EASY? I mean, it's probably not something you can make in an hour, but then, the cuter stuff never is. (It takes time to grind the cute into the fabric, you know. Laboriously. By hand.) But it looks so easy TO WEAR.

I love those patterns that want ONE HUGE BUTTON, because my One-Huge-Button collection is vast; it contains many, many One Huge Buttons picked up hither and yon. (I used to, in my less discriminating/more magpie-ish days, buy completely ratty, holey, unwearable vintage, just to cut the two remaining buttons off of it. Then I would lose one of the buttons. This is how One Huge Button collections are born.)

I'd make this out of a ditsy floral, I think, green and yellow, with a big green button and green piping around the pockets. Or a red and black geometric with a red button and piping. I might even pipe the yoke. Except I'm not buying this one, because it's slightly too small for me (Size 14, B34, I think). So one of y'all do it, okay, and then send me a picture of the dress you make?

I have to say that I've made quite a few of these Anne Adams newspaper patterns, and they're usually very good — clear directions, go together well. As soon as I get a new battery charger for my camera (I can't find the one it came with, which leads me to believe I left it in some hotel room, somewhere, grrrr) I'll take a picture of a couple Anne Adams dresses I've made that I really liked. If I remember. Nag me, okay?