Lisa found this one for us — she has mad eBay skillz. Either that or she inhabits a different eBay universe from the one I look at, and is able to send the cool listings she finds across the dimensional barriers. I dunno. Either way, look at this one! You have to go click through, because there are many, many other pictures, like the ones that show the little rhinestones in the centers of the daisies.

It's B36/W28 and only $34 right now, with two bids. That's crazy low. (Sorry if you're the current high bidder, whom I have just screwed over by posting this.)

I really like this style of pocket — as you know I'm a big fan of functional design elements. I think I'm going to make a dress with similar pockets, and I think I'm going to wear it roller-skating. I went skating last night, right from a dinner event for a conference I'm at — and, needless to say, I was the only person on the floor in a calf-length dress, but it worked surprisingly well. (In other words, I didn't fall.) It streamed behind me pleasingly when I went fast (I really, really, really like to go FAST) and Liberty prints look nice under disco lights. (Why wouldn't they?) But anyway, I'm thinking some wide striped fabric, maybe red and white, with pockets trimmed in narrower-stripe red and white ribbon (or maybe polka dots)? and a longish skirt. Fun! But I will not put red pompons on my skates. There is a line I won't cross, aren't you glad to know?

A Dress A Day reader Cynthia sent me this picture — she's in the process of making a dress out of ties, as well. I've always wanted to do this, but taking apart ties is a pain in the neck, and sewing with all that bias silk …. oy. Maybe someday. In the meantime, take a look at this example and start stockpiling ties, as I am.

(I do have a fabulous Christmas-tree skirt made of ties, which was a present from my friend Thora, who is one of the most interesting, intelligent, and just plain wonderful people you'd ever want to meet. That link goes to information bout the show of French dictionary art she curated last year. It's in French, though …)

One word of warning — if you click on the image above and read the comments, you may exceed your recommended daily dose of exclamation points! I'm not kidding!! Really!!!

I was in Target on Sunday and I almost bought this despite the fact that I don't do spaghetti straps and despite the sad truth that I am too short-waisted for the Mizrahi sizing. I have to say, it looks ten times better in person than it does in this picture. (I think the model is standing funny — she's minimizing her chest and maximizing her hips, which is wrong for this dress.) The bodice has a slight asymmetrical surplice effect (hard to see in this picture), and it's lined in a smaller rose print that is just adorable. The fabric also looks much more vintage and less like a couch in person.

And it's only $39.99! As I said, I almost bought it right on the spot, and if the (mostly-Orthodox) customers of my local Target don't swoop in and grab all these, I *will* buy it when it's on clearance and figure out if I can take up the shoulder straps (and find a nice cardigan to wear over it). It's that cute. If your Target is not frequented by customers who would find this immodest, I'd grab it right away. I bet it will sell out. It's so classic, too, that if you were afraid of seeing yourself coming and going, you could hold onto it for a season or two, wait until everyone's forgotten it, and then bust it out. Not that I've ever done that with anything from *cough* H&M *cough* or anything.

Oh, Isaac, your dresses are so cute! Why can't you find a fit model who's not so long from shoulder to waist? I would gladly volunteer …

This is a new Liberty print, and I waaaaaaant it. Too bad this eBay auction (click to go buy it and taunt me with it) is only 1.75 meters. I need at least four yards to make a giant lampshade dress. And it will take pretty much all my powers of restraint NOT to make a matching lampshade hat, because — well, because it would be really, really funny. (Even funnier if you know that I'm teetotal.)

This eBay seller does have more listed, starting at £15/meter, which would work out to being more than $100 for four yards. Plus shipping. I think I will have to wait!

I'm sure none of you would be surprised that I spent my Saturday afternoon sewing. After all, that's what I'd spend all my free time doing, if I could. You might be surprised to learn that I was doing alterations (given how often I've loudly proclaimed how I hate to do alterations). However — this was for a very good cause. I spent Saturday afternoon taking up shoulder straps, putting in quick darts, and mending seams that had divorced themselves from zippers, all for The Glass Slipper Project, a Chicago nonprofit that connects gently used dresses, shoes, jewelry and accessories with girls who would otherwise not have a chance to go to their proms appropriately attired.

Yesterday, I was told, more than 500 girls came through the "boutique," held in a disused school in Cabrini. 126 dresses came through the "alterations department", where, when I arrived for my shift at noon, half a dozen cheerful women were seated behind machines in a giant metal cage. (When a fire alarm went off, none of us moved, and the Triangle Shirtwaist jokes came thick and fast …)

It was hard to decide what was more fun — sitting and joking with the other alterations volunteers, our laps full of satin and lace, or watching the girls try on their altered dresses and seeing their excitement and anticipation.

I really enjoyed talking with the other volunteers (and I'm not just saying that because I told them about this blog!). Two, Julie and Holly, run their own sewing business — Dame Couture, custom vintage-inspired bridal and party dresses, which is really worth checking out! They took off a whole Saturday, in the height of the bridal-planning season, to volunteer. Chris, one of the other volunteers, told me about a new sewing organization in Chicago, Haute Couture (although a cursory Google didn't turn it up, I'm sure I'll find it).

It was freeing to do alterations "commando-style" — since speed was of the essence, we didn't bother with undoing facings or seams. We just made it fit, double-stitched so the fixes would hold through a night of energetic dancing, and grabbed the next dress off the rack. "Who's got the blue thread?" "I need to do some darts, is there a machine free?" "How would you fix this?" "Is there any Fray-Chek?" "Can somebody slip-stitch this closed?" we would call, as Marilyn and Maureen, the fitters, flitted back and forth, pinning the girls, taking up hems, and double-checking the alterations. It was like Habitat for Humanity, only with dresses.

Unfortunately, I can't make next weekend's boutique (I'm out of town), but I'll definitely be back next year. There are similar organizations in most major cities — Google "prom donation [your city here]" and you'll track them down. You'll be glad you did.

Sometimes you see a dress and you know exactly why it's on sale. Like this one, from Necessary Objects, which is reduced to $33 at Nordstrom.com. I mean — look at how chunky it makes the model (the model!) look. And really, I think there are only two excuses for cowls: satin evening gowns and contests where the goal is to use as much fabric as possible. I would think that this was the latter, except that the skirt's so short. The model looks as if she would like to pull that cowl right over her head.

Oh, and did I mention that it's polyester? Yeah. I hope Nordstrom didn't take a big position in these babies.

In other news: I'm still trying to figure out how to post all the great book covers in a way that lets you vote on them without me having to do any counting. Also, I figured out how to do the Duro dress! I think. I have a muslin done, took me about an hour last night. It's not perfect (figuring out where to put the zipper is going to take a while) but it's getting there!

Isn't this amazing? It's on offer from Traven7 on eBay, and it looks to be in magnificent condition — and a spectacular color. Bidding's at about $70 as I write this, and it's a wearable size ("wearable," of course, means "I could wear it") B36-38, W 29-30. Look at the collar, the buttons! This dress demands a party. In fact, the first thing this dress made me think of was saying "Hello, darling! What do you want to drink?"

I am very engaged with yellow, lately. I bought the yellow Luella bag from Target (note, link is to eBay auction as the bag is sold out) which fulfilled my main bag requirements (handy outside pockets for my Treo and my iPod). And it's washable, bonus! I have moved my yellow cardigan sweater to the top of the pile for easier retrieval. And I bought some insane yellow-mustard-brown-red abstract floral pique, which, if I get some sewing time tonight/tomorrow, I will post as a dress on Sunday or Monday.

Traven7 notes that this dress is from a Vogue Couturier pattern, so not only can I daydream about buying this one and throwing a party just to wear it, I can scheme about acquiring the original pattern, and making my own version (although the way I'm going now, if I made one, it would also be yellow).

I'm trying not to go overboard with the yellow, though, because just a couple of summers ago I felt this way about pure bubblegum pink, and, except for an iPod skin and a couple of sweaters, bubblegum pink and I don't really talk anymore. It's sad, really. We just grew apart, got too busy, or something. I should give her a call, see if she wants to go out for a drink sometime …

Previously on A Dress A Day… noted blogger The Sartorialist took this lovely picture of a very stylish woman at the New York City Easter Parade. There was much speculation, here and elsewhere, about the exact provenance of her dress. Was is vintage? Was it reproduction? Was it a combination? The readers wanted to know!

Well, on today's exciting installment of A Dress A Day — the Easter Parade Dress Woman SPEAKS! Yes, thanks to the miracle of the Internet, where, any time Person A posts something that is even tangentially about Person B, a friend of Person B is bound to run across it and give Person B the heads-up. Sometimes, as in this case, it works for good. (Sometimes it works the other way, e.g. LiveJournal.)

The Easter Parade Dress Woman (EPDW for short, not that we'll ever have to use this again as I am about to reveal her name), Joie Gregory, kindly emailed to tell me that

"(the dress) is, in fact, a vintage late 50's Oleg Cassini couture, worn in honor of the late great designer for Jackie Kennedy. I altered nothing and isn't that green sensational? The green fabric is akin to a swimsuit material, and the rest is a heavy silk. I wore a voluminous petticoat so it would fall properly."

Joie went on to let me know that the New Look is her favorite time period, although she also has some 40s vintage, and (modestly) that's she's pleased that the dress has so many admirers. I'm pleased that A Dress A Day, your #1 news source for vintage dress speculation, was able to break this story (with the readers' help).

We now return you to your regularly scheduled Internet.

Have I posted this one before? I know I own it (now you can too, click on the image to go to the eBay auction, B38), but I don't know if I've posted it before, and frankly I'm much too tired to go back through more than 350 postings to find out. This is one of those times when I wish I had added keywords to all my posts, like, say, the pattern manufacturer and pattern number (and maybe ones like "rant" and "gratuitous mention of Jack Purcells").

Well. If I haven't written about this one before, I will now, and if I have, I'm a-goin' to say it again. I'm not entirely convinced that this dress isn't a bathrobe/negligee of some sort that someone at Vogue put in the wrong category, and then hoped no one would notice. I think it's really pretty, and keep looking at it with the idea of making it, but then I remember that what can wrap can also unwrap and that someone as clumsy and as prone to making sudden exaggerated gestures as I am should not really wear wrap dresses in public. But … I'm sure enough snaps would fix it. (The last time I made a wrap dress I actually ended up carrying a threaded needle and some extra snaps the first time I wore it, so certain was I that I would need them. I didn't, but I was glad I had them just in case.)

I would like to make the short version in some very thin, very limp cotton, perhaps pale yellow, and use wide grosgrain ribbon for the waist tie and narrower ribbon or bias binding in the same shade to finish the edges, instead of facings. Not sure whether I'd do the ribbon in contrast (robin's egg blue?) or a darker shade of yellow.

The one thing that signals "housedress" to me for this pattern is the pocket on the long version. If it were meant to be worn as an evening dress in that length, I don't think it would have a pocket, or if it did, such a plain one. It just doesn't feel right. This is a dress for entertaining at home, in the long version, or running out to the market for a couple of things, in the short version. Of course, now, running out to the market means sweatpants (::shudder::), a ratty ponytail, a baseball cap, and a t-shirt that proudly states your affiliation with a sports team or institute of higher learning. And flip-flops. And you know, I'd rather take my chances with the unwrapping wrap than leave the house in the above combo. Of course, considering the only thing that I own in the above list are the flip-flops, and since I only wear those when Absolutely Necessary, I suppose the chance of an Erin sweatpants sighting is pretty rare. Maybe if my house burned down and I had to borrow clothes from somebody. Now, Erin in a well-washed polka-dot skirt she made eight years ago, a polo shirt from Old Navy that is eligible to vote, and beat-up Jack Purcells? That sighting is so common the tabloids won't even take pictures of it anymore. The paparazzi just light more cigarettes and lie in wait for somebody else.

And that combination would be "tasteful bondage-inspired detailed dress — sedate" which is how the seller of this Modes Royale pattern describes it in her eBay listing. In fact, googling the phrase "tasteful bondage-inspired" got no hits (and once I post this it will get one hit, making it a googlewhack).

Well, I suppose if you want something tasteful, yet bondage-inspired, this would be your top choice. Obviously, it's the jaunty pocket square that shouts "tasteful!" while the straps would be the "bondage-inspired" part.

If I were going to make this (which I'm NOT, because I can't imagine anything that would look more ludicrous on me than this, but if I WERE) it would be in bright red with shiny patent straps and a heart- or lipstick-print pocket square. Because, you know, I wouldn't want it to be OBVIOUS or anything. Perhaps if I could find some material printed with little handcuffs? That would be hysterical.

What shoes to wear with this? The new Gucci platform ankle-straps, of course (I can't believe you had to ask):

They're so beautiful — too bad I can't show proof that I'll be carried around on a palanquin, which I believe you have to furnish before you can buy a pair.