I was really impressed by Built by Wendy Dresses: The Sew U Guide to Making a Girl's Best Frock. I really liked her Sew U book that came out back in 2006, so I was excited to see that she had a new one, concentrating exclusively on DRESSES. Whoo-hoo!

There are three dress patterns (sheath, shift, and dirndl) and twenty-five variations, most of which are cute (although they skew a little young). And the pattern sizing has changed from the first book, with the new book including an XL size (up to a 41" bust).

This would be a good book for a dedicated beginner. By "dedicated beginner," I mean someone who is slightly more patient than average (or maybe just slightly more patient than ME), who is thoughtful and careful, and who has sufficient motivation to spend more than one weekend putting a dress together. I estimate that it would take one weekend's worth of time (for a beginner) just to get the patterns traced and altered, one weekend to cut out the pattern and begin construction, and one weekend (or long evening) to do the finishing work. This is definitely a book for someone who will enjoy the planning and the process as much as the finished item.

However, if you worked your way carefully through the projects in this book, there would be very little that would faze you at the end. She covers pattern alterations, collars, clipping curves, sewing on buttons, seam finishing, facings and linings … and of course, pockets, although welt pockets are not included — even Wendy says they're on the difficult side, so she left them out. Zippers are given a slightly hand-wavy treatment, but since there are roughly one gazillion zipper tutorials floating around the web, I don't think that's a problem.

I get a lot of emails that basically read "I bought a sewing machine NOW WHAT??" I think this book is the new answer to "NOW WHAT??"

So IndigoTangerine left a comment here last week asking if knew that this blog was mentioned in a book called Breakfast At Bloomingdale's. Which, um, no, I didn't! But it is!

I think most of you know that I'm a dictionary editor in my "day job", but when I was working for OUP I was also an "acquiring editor," which meant that I noodged, nagged, harangued, and otherwise coaxed books from ideas to publication. I have a shelf of books in my house that I can point to and say "I midwived those" (and in some of them I can point to the acknowledgements to prove it). Occasionally, when I am having a bad day, I go look at that shelf and I say to myself: "Those are some mighty kickass books that wouldn't be here if I hadn't helped." (I'm even prouder of those books than I am of my own.)

So anyway, of *course* I ordered this one. I may even put it on the same shelf!

Pink: Boo-yah! Let's get this party started! Holla back!

Blue: I hate this part of the movie, when I'm no longer queen bee. It's almost like being blonde is a handicap these days. Sheesh. I remember when I got to wear pink and go sleeveless. That's it, when this take is over I'm coloring my hair. Screw continuity, I'd be a fantastic redhead.

Gray: Ptarmigan. How'd that "p" get there? I wonder if that key grip would know?

[Special not-so-secret shoutout: Happy birthday, Mom!]

Anthropologie actually calls this the Great Heights Shift, so they are to blame for the instant earworm I just gave you, not me. Honest. (Anyone earwormed with the Iron & Wine version? Raise your hand in the comments.)

Eirlys sent me the link to this dress (I'm pretty sure — Eirlys, was that you?) and I've been a-thinkin' about it something fierce. Not that I will buy this dress, because (given the reviews) it probably wouldn't fit me very well, but because I love this fabric. Love. It. So I keep thinking of ways to get me some. Like, "calling Anthropologie headquarters, tracking down stalking the manufacturer, and begging" ways. None of which will work, because, given the way modern retailing works, this dress was made months ago and there's probably, like, a yard of this fabric left (and it's being used to re-cover an ottoman, or make a cat-bed). Sigh. Anyway, that little picture up there doesn't do the fabric justice, click on the link and do the mouse-y close-up thing. (You know. That thing.) THEN you'll see. This would make the cutest A-line skirt with pockets … or another Heidi, of course.

Completely unrelated: I found an awesome new (old) word for "someone who sews": sewster. You're welcome.

I recently set up a news alert for Liberty of London and I wish I hadn't. If I hadn't, I wouldn't have heard about the new MAC cosmetics/Liberty collaboration, which looks amazing (and I don't even wear that much makeup).

Man, that lipstick looks cute. Although I never wear lipstick that isn't lip balm with color in it, and rarely even remember to wear that. I swear, with regular lipstick, I'm like a dog wearing a hat, doing my best to rub the damn thing off, already.

Liberty is also supposed to be doing a huge collaboration with Target, due to launch at about the same time. Will I want one of everything? Probably. There's supposedly everything from "bird houses and bicycles to lingerie."

Anyone else know of more Liberty stuff coming down the pipe? I have to plan for this stuff, people!

Cindy: You're sure it was here?
Mindy: What?
Cindy: That we were to wait.
Mindy: He said by the invisible chair. (pause) Do you see any others?
Cindy: No, but I wouldn't. If they were invisible.

Cindy: He should be here.
Mindy: He didn't say for sure he'd come.
Cindy: And if he doesn't come?
Mindy: We'll come back tomorrow.
Cindy: And then the day after tomorrow.

Mindy: Day after tomorrow I have a hairdresser's appointment.
Cindy: Then Thursday, then. Thursday good for you?
Mindy: That's fine. Thursday.

Today's pattern is available from Jen at MOMSPatterns — it's so cute, isn't it?

(With apologies to Samuel Beckett.)

So a brief mention of goings-on in Avonlea in yesterday's post made me start thinking about all the dresses in the Anne books (one of which I posted about the VERY FIRST month I blogged) and that led me to this, Anne's wedding dress.

I think this is from the widely panned miniseries/movie that I haven't seen, and not the actual books, but no matter. It's still pretty! (Click on the image to visit the Sullivan entertainment site, where the pattern is for sale.)

It would be well-nigh impossible for me to tally up all the hours I spent reading about Anne and Gilbert [heavy sigh]. Who's with me in still not-so-secretly thinking that Gilbert Blythe is one of the best too-good-to-be-true romantic heroes of girlhood literature? (And he's not even a vampire! Take that, Twihards!)

(I now feel a compulsion to watch that movie, despite the fact that it's not based a) on the books or b) set in Canada or c) in even remotely the same time period. Given all that, is it worth it?)

One more Heidi … for now (evil laugh):

I'm not sure if the color really comes across on your screen, but this dress is BLUE. Blue blue blue blue blue. The closest I can come to describing it is that this is the blue that I assumed they painted the Avonlea hall:

a deep, brilliant blue, the shade they use for painting carts and wheelbarrows.

Despite it being probably not so good a color for a community hall on Prince Edward Island, I quite like it as a dress!

Here's the bodice — note the lining which I deliberately pressed to show, for a kind of piping effect without the work:

And the same lining as the bodice for the pocket:

I have at least one more Heidi left to come — I managed to cut out FOUR of them in one evening, assembly-line style, and have finished one. Seriously, at this point I hardly want to wear anything else — they're just so comfortable!

Here's the second Heidi I made (fuzzy pic, sorry):

The fabric is by Joel Dewberry, I'm pretty sure I bought it from eQuilter, although I don't see it there now. I probably hovered with my finger over the "buy" button for five or six visits until I figured out what to do with it … luckily, Heidi only takes 2 yards of 56" wide fabric (another reason to love it!) so it wasn't a huge commitment once I did decide to buy it.

I lined the bodice on this one with some $1/yard fabric I bought ages ago. Every time I think "oh, I should really get rid of all those remnants that I bought for no good reason," I find a dress pattern like this one (or the Duro) that needs little bits of contrast fabric. Whew!

You can almost see the lining fabric — it's cream-colored, with a maroon and gray thread stripe, perfect, huh? — and the gray ribbon I used as pocket trim, here:

Here's the back — I actually made a half-assed (pun intended!) attempt at matching the pattern on this one.

I've been wearing this with dark gray tights, flat penny loafers (duh) and a dark maroon sweater; I could probably also wear it with a bright pink, a dark gray, or a cream-colored sweater, if I thought about it.

I also have a goldenrod-colored scarf (you know, one of those pashmina-y things) that goes nicely with this, and about two weeks ago I was in "the city" (which seems to be what you call San Francisco, if you live near it) wearing this dress, that scarf, and an old denim Levi's jacket I swiped from my Dad in roughly 1987 (with bright pink leather gloves sticking out of the breast pocket) and a tourist actually STOPPED ME ON THE STREET and asked to take my picture. It wasn't the Sartorialist, but hey, it was still nice. So if you see that picture on the web somewhere, let me know?

A few other quick things: I'm sure you already know (and knowing you all, have already donated to the best of your ability) about the tragedy in Haiti — but if you're looking for sewing-type things to do, eBay seller Charlong is donating the proceeds from her auctions to Doctors Without Borders, and I know Lisa and Tina have been doing relief/benefit auctions/sales, as well. If you have links to other relief/benefit sales, please leave 'em in the comments, and I'll do a roundup later this week.

Remember way back when, last year, when I posted about this fabulous new BurdaStyle pattern I'd found, Heidi? I made three of them in quick succession and promised you pictures.

I finally got a battery charger for my camera (and then immediately found mine, in the last box unpacked after the move, isn't that always the way?) and so here is my first Heidi attempt:

Notice how deep the neckline is? Yeah, me too. So I wear a long-sleeved black tee under this one. After this one I altered the pattern to not be as wide and deep, and I still have more of this fabric (glad I bought a ton of it, I love it and it's now sold out!) so I'm probably going to re-make the bodice. It goes together quickly (despite being lined) so that won't be the arduous slog it would usually be.

Oh, and I changed the tucks in the original pattern bodice to darts.

And look! It has pockets!

The original pattern had very shallow pockets, but I deepened them by about three inches, which seems to work just fine. They go together very easily.

Here's the back:

For some reason it was really hard to take sharp pictures of this particular print … I wonder why? And I'm sorry it looks so baggy — I adjusted my dress form WAY down to take some pictures of some smaller dresses with a friend, and she's still not back to her usual fighting form. The dress itself is fairly fitted.

As you can see, I didn't even bother to try to match the print. It's giant scribbles!

Next week I'll show the other two versions!

(Sorry, I don't know where this week went. Okay, I do know — it was trapped in busyland, with two writing deadlines, a couple of big meetings, and torrential California rain which caused minor flooding in our garage [WHICH IS STILL BETTER THAN SNOW!]. Next week, well, it doesn't look better, busy-wise, but it doesn't look like I need to start cadging ProVigil, either.)