I kid, I kid. At some point I will look at the pictures and opine, but really, in the Universe According to Erin, Christina Hendricks shows up in this Suzy Perette number, and everyone else goes home.
Christina, if you need this, check out the eBay auction. There's still time to bid!
If I were recruiting for a new elite corps of airline hostesses (and who's to say I'm not?) I would definitely make this the uniform. See how cleverly the sergeant's stripes are incorporated into the bodice?
Thanks to Tammy O. for sending the link — the eBay auction ends, like, nowish, so jump if you want it.
Oh, and I think the model in gray is holding a swagger stick, yes?
So do you remember The Uniform Project? Woman wears the same dress every day for a year, raises money for charity, great idea, yadda yadda.
Even cooler, she made a pattern for the dress, and is selling the pattern … except: by buying the pattern (for $25, including $2 extra to her charity) you agree to this wackaloon EULA:
I acknowledge that the designs and patterns (the "Dress Patterns") offered for sale on this website are protected by copyright, trademark and other intellectual property rights controlled by Uniform Project. I agree that I may use the Dress Patterns only for personal, non-commercial purposes. For the purpose of clarity, I shall not use any item of clothing created through use of the Dress Patterns (the "Dress") in any commercial advertising, film, television, print or online media, nor shall any Dress be sold to third parties without the prior written consent of Uniform Project. For the avoidance of doubt, no prior written consent shall be required to post photos or videos of any Dress on a non-commercial website.
There are so many things wrong with this. Where to start?
— First, this agreement would prohibit you from donating a dress to Goodwill or selling it at a yard sale. And IANAL, but I think this is permitted under the right of first sale: in other words, once you buy something, especially a physical object, it is your right to sell it as you choose.
— It's pretty standard for commercial sewing patterns (Vogue, etc.) to say you can't use the pattern to make garments commercially, but — you don't want to anyway. But saying you can't wear the dress on TV? Why not? Do they seriously think that if someone shows up wearing this dress in, say, a Mentos commercial it infringes their trademark? What if you are photographed for a "man on the street" segment? (And the founder of the project works in advertising, or did, which makes this all the more head-scratchy.)
— Again, IANAL, but as far as I know, you cannot copyright a fashion design in the US (in fact, Diane Von Furstenberg has been trying to change that for years, in part to protect her iconic wrap dress) but only the printed pattern (or you can trademark a logo, which is part of the reason why huge logos are so prevalent these days). (And I'm not an expert in using the USPTO site, but I didn't even see a trademark registered for the Uniform Project, under that name.)
— And what makes something a non-commercial website? I run ads, is this site commercial? (That's why there's no picture of the dress or pattern here, although I think their restriction makes no sense.) What about someone who makes butter-and-egg money from Amazon affiliate links? Who gets free products for review?
Does anyone (perhaps someone who is a lawyer) know why buying a dress pattern would be saddled with such a restrictive agreement? I can't imagine the possible "tort" that would necessitate this kind of heavy-handed protection. Does someone wearing this dress in an ad really injure the Uniform Project in a substantive way?
Needless to say, they lost my business.
Birgit sent me the link to this ages ago — I can't believe it's still available at her shop. Don't these girls look out for a good time? They all look loaded for bear, but my money is on the brunette in teal.
I think view D is the prettiest dress — even in basic black.
The fundraiser is still going strong — remember, if we hit $1200 by Christmas, there's a new Secret Lives story coming! And there are still 3 or 4 prepublication copies of Secret Lives up for grabs for the next few donors …
http://www.networkforgood.org/PCA/Badge.swf?BadgeId=114975
Remember to vote for what you want to see in the story:
http://modpoll.com/poll.js?pid=agdwb2xsMmdvcg0LEgRQb2xsGLvHlwYM&theme=&width=200
Caption: Somewhere, deep in the land of WTF accessories, these women have lost their way. See how the blonde in the back is yodeling for help, while her sisters are oblivious to their fate?
Believe it or not, the hat and muff pattern come with this dress. Because someone, somewhere, looked at this perfectly nice dress and thought, "What this needs is FUR! Fur cuffs! A fur hat! A fur muff!" And since everyone else just wanted to go to lunch, or even just get back to their real work, they all nodded and filed out of the conference room in a collective shrug of "what can you do?"
A fur hat, sure: leaving the ethics of fur aside (let's pretend it's fake fur), it's kinda kicky, kinda Moscovite. And it's up there on your head where it can't do any damage. But: fur cuffs? I've never seen a garment where fur cuffs didn't turn into disgusting unwashable dust and germ magnets. It's like wearing Swiffers at the end of your arms.
And muffs! Muffs are the anti-pocket. Let's see: why don't we take your perfectly functional hands, and shackle them in front of you in a hot sweaty upholstered tube you can't put down? Brilliant! What do you do with a muff when you (just for example) want to shake hands? Blow your nose? Unlock a door? Unless it's lined with nickels so you can use it as a cosh, I can't see the point. And even then, the "beautiful girl pulls a teeny-tiny gun from a muff" schtick is so cliche I bet just carrying a muff gets you extra screening at the TSA checkpoints.
However: the dress itself is lovely, and Sandra is having a 20% off fall sale, through Wednesday. Just mention “dressadaySale” in the checkout (and yes, you can combine the sale with Sandra's shipping discounts)!
This dress brings to mind three scenarios for me:
— Flight attendant (a trained pilot herself) manages to land plane safely after rude, chauvinistic pilot eats a bad egg-salad sandwich and spends flight moaning in lavatory. After landing, she gets his job!
— Crusading journalist takes on City Hall (and town's rude, chauvinistic mayor) and wins!
— 1970s unfulfilled suburban housewife goes back to work as charismatic teacher for school full of written-off, disadvantaged youth, fights rude, chauvinistic principal and wins!
In short, this pattern is made of WIN. Something about the yoke + neck scarf + jaunty pockets combo just leads to triumphs over the patriarchy. I don't know what it is.
This pattern is from Sheila at Out of the Ashes, who is having a sale this weekend: 15% off, starting today and ending Sunday night. (Coupon code is GLAMIS.) Got any entrenched jerks who need fighting?
I dare anyone who ever spent time reading British children's literature to look at this pattern and not want to spend the rest of the day reading E. Nesbit, Noel Streatfeild, or even C.S. Lewis. (Or Edward Eager, although he's not a Brit.) Preferably on the couch, under an afghan, while drinking cocoa. (Or ginger beer.)
(This could be Susan and Lucy — couldn't it? The youngest girl is always full of pluck, right? Pattern is from Tina at What I Found Vintage.)
Feel free to reminisce about your favorite children's books in the comments …
Pansy: It's awesome to be us.
Daisy: TELL me about it. I mean, look at us. Me in particular. Awe. Some. Some serious awe goin' on here.
Iris: Although, I think it's more awesome to be me and Pansy than you, Daisy, because, frankly, we have better shoes. We are totes awesome-er.
Pansy: Gotta hear that!
Daisy: I have a kickass bag, though.
Pansy: True dat. Can't deny.
Daisy: It may be slightly more awesome to be me and Iris, Pansy, because we don't talk like a passé beer commercial.
Pansy: How's "whatevs"? I think "whatevs" is still awesome. Whatevs, Daisy.
Iris: Whatevs. Remember when we used to be aMAZing? I kind of miss aMAZing.
Daisy: Whatevs. We can leave it as given that we're all awesome. Until we decide that we're fabulous, of course.
[This awesome pattern is from Penny at Antique Dollhouse of Patterns. Awesome.]
I'm completely in love with this skirt pattern (New Look 6981). Here's the line drawing (I'm not showing you the photo illustration because I find it cringe-inducingly hokey):
I'll post some pictures soon of the two skirts I've made from this pattern so far — and I'm sure they won't be the last, either. This skirt is incredibly comfortable and goes together like a dream. Sewing at top speed I bet I could get one cut and sewn in a couple of hours, and that includes using an invisible zipper (instead of the regular one the pattern calls for) and adding on-seam pockets.
It's a really cheap pattern, too — you can get it for under $5 — and very efficient in terms of fabric use. (I'm going to go through my large bin of "pieces of fabric too big to toss yet too small for an entire dress" and see what skirts I can eke out of leftover yardage.)
So far the ones I've made have been in heavy denim, but I also just bought some velveteen that I am dying to sew up … and this would be really cute in lightweight cottons with the heavy contrast border. Do I sound obsessed yet? It's trending that way …
I've been thinking about skirts lately, and came across this one from Jen at MOMSPatterns. It's got SIXTEEN GORES! And it recommends PLAIDS! There is not a single alternate reality across the multiverse where I have the time, the patience, or the number of pins necessary to match a plaid across SIXTEEN GORES.
In fact, the reason that the plaid example here is oddly truncated is because the model's HEAD FELL OFF while she was completing the skirt. And she's just an illustration! Imagine what would happen to a real person.
I recommend you to to MOMSPatterns to look at this pattern and marvel, and then click around to take advantage of her sale –
you can save 25% using coupon code 'costumes' through midnight (EST) on Sunday (August 29, 2010). The sale is good on ALL
items, even patterns in the sale section.
A Dress A Day 