This is the new HotPatterns Deco Vibe dress, and I'm really feeling it — can't you see the Duroesque nature of the short version that's front and center? That kind of louche, qiana-flavored 1970s attitude is becoming ever more attractive as we head into a sweater-wearing, oil-crisis-flavored 1970s deflationary malaise … and Jeremy from HotPatterns offered me a copy of this pattern, too!
The thing is — as much as I love the feel of this pattern, I'm just not up to it. I don't have a slinky bone in my body (forget the oxymoronicness of "slinky bone": you know what I mean). And you can't put pockets in this one, and I know I'd put that gorgeous grey clutch handbag (in my head it's suede, of course) down to pick up my cell phone or a Diet Coke and it would be gone forever, with my car keys in it.
So instead of hoarding the pattern to myself, and taking it out every once in a while to double-check that yeah, I'm still not slinky, I'm going to give the pattern (when it comes) to one of you. One you slinky goddesses out there, or one of you who can fake "slinky goddess" when this pattern hums a few bars. What do you have to do to get it?
You have to add a link to one of your favorite online fabric stores to the Vintage Pattern Wiki's new Favorite Fabric Stores page! I've put one link in there so far (just the first one I could type the URL of off the top of my head, which, frankly, is frightening) as a model. I'll look at the page history next Friday and choose one person who has added a link to get the pattern — so if you want to win, it helps to be logged in to the wiki, so I know who's who!
I would prefer that people add links ONLY to stores that sell fabric, notions, or trim online, not to stores that will mail-order if you email and ask. (We can sort those out later … or maybe this will be an incentive for them to get all the way online!) If it gets long, go ahead and add categories: knits, quilting, buttons, etc. Feel free to add a little note about the link, but please, just a few words — if we start seeing spammy or overly-marketing-y disquisitions, I WILL go in with my Avenging Editor hat on and clean it right up. (The Avenging Editor hat looks like something Rosalind Russell would wear: jaunty, with a little feather, tilted slightly to one side, and firmly pinned in place so that you can slug a reporter while wearing it and have it not come off. It SO hurts your dignity if your hat falls off when you're hitting someone.)
Anyway: back to the contest! If every tenth person who reads this blog adds just one link … let's just say there probably aren't that many online fabric stores in the world. Have fun!
A Dress A Day 
I had to giggle when I read you don’t have a slinky bone in your body. I don’t think of that dress as slinky. Depending on the material, especially if it’s jersey, I’d wear that comfy thing any day of the week!
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Jersey! That would be a brilliant material for this dress. Good call, dwj 🙂
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Thanks–love having the wikipedia link to fav fabrics as well!
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Oh, cute! I might have to succumb…
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No, there AREN’T that many online fabric stores in the world. I’m in New Zealand and I don’t know of any, unless you count trademe (the NZ version of eBay). I, alas, buy my fabric from real shops, and therefore can’t enter the contest, even though I love the dress and can slink with the best of them. 😦
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I added a link to Dharma Trading Company; I’m surprised nobody did it before me! They’re great.Also, I think that dress would be awesome even for the non-slinky if you made it in jersey and added a back-tying sash (maybe sewing ties onto the side seams?). Beautiful pattern! 🙂
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Before today I had never heard the word qiana (actually I still haven’t heard it out loud, so I’ve no idea how you pronounce it) then lo and behold, I go to a Bill Gibb exhibition this morning and there’s qiana all over the place, then I come home and it’s on Dress A Day. Funny old world. And as you are a professional in the field, can I ask – is qiana the only word that doesn’t have a ‘u’ after the ‘q’? (Apart from Qantas, which is an acronym so doesn’t count…). Wouldn’t that dress work in a silk crepe or charmeuse? Just this very day (again), I bought no fewer than three printed silks from Liberty – this one, this one and this one – I can see this dress in any one of these. Probably not with pockets, though, admittedly.
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I added a link for Superbuzzy, but I just made a knit dress with a very similar collar so I’ll bow out of the prize running.Actually, if you do like the Deco Vibe silhouette with less of a slinky factor check out V8489. I made mine last weekend and the full skirt is perfect for side pockets.
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I added the Fat Quarter Shop! I shop there all the time, I love it!
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Why not a soft rayon (or wool) challis? Skipping the pattern due to lack of pockets is acceptable. The dress really isn’t all that slinky. Really, lack of slink is only a state of mind.
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I likes it. I am seeing it as an awesome maternity dress for me.
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Hey Kate – there’s also qat, and qi. I don’t know if qi is legal in Scrabble but qat definitely is. (Of course, Erin can tell us for sure.)Great dress, but the cleavage shadowing on Long Gray Dress woman makes her look a little… furry…
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I love that pattern. I’m tempted to order it, but since my list of patterns to make is miles long, I’m going to try and resist!
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hey! I just heard a rumor that you signed a book deal for Secret Lives of Dresses! Congrats!
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This dress makes me wonder about the practicality of super-old-fashioned pockets, where they’re on a belt you wear under the dress and you just have slits in the sides to reach in to them. It might work better if the pockets are on an underskirt so you can match the color…but of course, then you’d have mysterious lumps on your hips and thighs under the slinky dress, even if your stuff isn’t dragging the dress down. I don’t even want to guess what people would think about a cell-phone-shaped bulge on one’s thigh. Oh well, nevermind.
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I recently got a vintage Vogue/DVF pattern that is somewhat similar to this…but it has pockets! I haven’t received it in the mail yet, but I’m anxious to take a crack at making it.
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Thanks for the link to a wonderful site. After 3 trys, I finally got Sewzannes Fabrics added, although not as a link..I guess I’m better at sewing. I am still looking for a picture of the Dries Van Noten dress that inspired that dress pattern.
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Am I the only one who doesn’t like this dress? I see the Duro resemblance, but I also see the hiked up front hemline and the over-all shapelessness of the sillouette. I do remember quiana – and not fondly – but this dress cries out for it.-Evalyn
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SWEET! I would make this in knit jersey and cinch it with a belt. I hope I win because this is the first Hot Pattern I’ve liked since the Pirate Queen line.
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I think you could pull this off even if you weren’t slinky if you chose the right fabric. I would stay way from the jerseys and sweater knits, but if you made it in a nice flow-y material (say a silk) that drapes across your body nicely, I think it would look fantastic on.
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no, you are not the only one, anonymous, who thinks it’s shapeless. It would look GOD AWFUL on me. But, to each her own. Perhaps on the tall and thin it would look nice.
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even tall and thin people can look preggers in the wrong dress……KEY – YA – NA
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Shouldn’t this be call “Disco Vibe”? I don’t see Deco at all. The trick to making a dress like this work is all in the fabric. Use a soft and fluid fabric with lots of drape and flow. It will look much more sophisticated in wool, silk, or rayon jersey than it will in polyester or nylon.
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I worked for a guy in the late 70’s who loved to wear Quiana shirts with his polyester leisure suits. He was particularly proud of the buttonholes in his leisure suits, which were fused, not stitched. It made me all the more aware of the fact the he was dressed entirely in petroleum derivatives. Creepy.I have not decided if I like this pattern yet. “Louche” is a good word for it, Erin. Maybe it just says “maternity nightgown” to me.Rayon, wool or silk jersey sound very nice. Is it actually available anywhere for purchase?
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Two things, Nadine, I’m sorry you can’t join the contest, although I was fascinated that you have to buy your fabric at a real shop. Here in Rhode Island, USA, I’ve wondered where all the fabric shops have gone, thinking people must be buying online. Could it be true, Erin, that you have signed a book deal for Secret Lives of Dresses? I’m psyched!!!
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I want to enter one, but when I read Wiki’s terms of agreement and saw that my email address would be publicly visible, I changed my mind about creating an account. I’ve never joined a site before that required that one agree to one’s email address being made publicly visible. And I don’t want to take time out to create another address, say on google or yahoo or something. Too much to keep track of and look after.Also found that someone else has already taken “my” user ID!I guess I’ll post my contribution anyway, but I won’t be able to enter the contest.
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oracle — you only have to make your email public if you are requesting that Wikia start a brand-new wiki, not to edit a page. You can make your email private by changing the settings on this page after logging in: http://www.wikia.com/wiki/Special:Preferences
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Erin, thank you so much for this.I’d tried to find out this much by looking around on the wiki site, but couldn’t find it easily and ran out of time.Thanks again!
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oh, lord, that pattern would scream “muumuu” on me, and not in a cute and ironic way.
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Nadine And Aunty Shel – im in NZ too and buy my fabric from real shops which are a dying breed. There are only three within reasonable driving distance of the small town I live in, none of them are really inspiring but I still buy from them so they cant be so bad! The only piece of fabric I ever bought off Trade Me was a disappointment so havent bothered again.I would love to buy from Gorgeous Fabrics or Emma One Sock but the exchange rate freight are prohibitive.
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I just took a look at the (growing) list and think it’s fantastic. I’m going to be coming back here whenever I’m looking for something new.May I make a suggestion though, if the list is big enough to need categories could one of them be “country”? I live in Canada and it is really hard to find things here (even though they exist) because there is just so much more stuff in the US (and most of it shows up at the top of a Google search, even when you select “pages from Canada”). I don’t mind supporting international economies but it’s nice to shop closer to home sometimes (especially when you want things quickly – the border crossing adds about a week to shipping time).The dress is cute – it would be sweet with tights and boots and maybe elbow gloves in the fall.
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I put the list in alphabetical order to make it easier for folks to scan through.
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I’m as encouraging to the next seamster/stress as I know how to be, but … ladies, I would approach this pattern with a whole bunch of caution – and then a little more caution. If you look at the first, short-sleeved view, you’ll see that the front is designed with a built-in hiked-up front hem. That in itself is guaranteed to make the wearer look as if she’s carrying some extra weight in the front. And the way the gathers are distributed in the front will only emphasize the tendency of the fabric to bulk up and pull in the front. I happen to love and cherish my 70s patterns; heck, I still have a chunk of burgundy qiana waiting to be made up! But I think the only person who might not be disappointed in the end result of this pattern is someone who is carrying weight front and center to begin with: either someone pregnant, or our hard-to-fit apple figure. This is NOT a dress which will make the wearer look terribly slinky, when done.Of course, that’s just my opinion – free, and worth every penny! But I would strongly urge at least pin-fitting the pattern before making it up. The good news, of course, is that if you’re not happy with it as a dress, it should make a very comfy sleep shirt!
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“patterns so hot they’re s….” WHAT? So hot they’re WHAT???this is driving me batty!
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“So hot they’re smokin'” is the line.I’m not slinky either, but mostly, I’ll pass on this pattern because I never would be able to get those gathers in the front to come out right. It would drive me crazy trying, and it’s not worth the risk. Especially in slinky fabric!! I’m too close (to “crazy”)as it is.
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I really don’t think it’s nylon–try polyester. Misinformation…
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