When I ran across this dress I looked at it for a good five minutes trying to figure out what it reminded me of. Of course, that didn't work, and it was only after doing two or three unrelated things that I realized — the sleeve-and-neckline combo here reminds me of paper dolls! Not that that's a bad thing. I think you should get this pattern and make it for you and all your friends, then wander around holding hands, very stiffly.

This pattern is from Sheila at Out of the Ashes, and she's decided to have a last minute Christmas sale – so if anyone wants to make any presents or that special Christmas or New Year's dress you *may* have time. (I'm now planning to make a festive dress for a December 26th wedding, myself …) Sheila also needs to make room for some more patterns – she can only fit so many in that spare bedroom!

How much of a sale, you ask? TWENTY PERCENT OFF! Use coupon code MERRY for discount, sale ends Wednesday.

Sarai of Colette Patterns sent me links to her new dress patterns, and I looooooove this one.

Leaving aside the photo styling, which I find very appealing, it's also a lovely dress. The teeny collar! A midriff band! Instructions for piping the neck and armholes. And (of course) POCKETS!

Here's the line drawing:

Click on either image to visit her shop listing … as soon as I sew roughly eight more versions of the Heidi dress, I may be heading her way myself!

A whole bunch of Hepburn-era Givenchy is going up for auction tomorrow. (Do you know the story of Audrey's first wedding dress? It's a tearjerker.)

Jenny at Chronically Uncool sent me a link to this article — 1300 vintage dresses found in St. Louis!

A whole bunch of Victoria Beckham's dresses were stolen. (I have no opinions about her husband, her music, or her personal life in general, but her dresses are quite pretty!)

I have no idea whether Black Dress is looking at Blue Dress in disgust or thinly disguised longing. I think it could go either way, or possibly both.

Black Dress: What *is* it about her? I can't sleep, I can't eat, I show up deliberately wearing the same dress, just so she'll notice me … [sigh] Which she never will.

Blue Dress: Look! I think I see them coming into the harbor! Get ready for Fleet Week, Amabel! I'm so glad we wore gloves.

TOTALLY could happen. Don't you think?

Sandra at Sandritocat is having a 20% sale to celebrate her shop's second anniversary! Her anniversary is actually December 7th, but she running the sale from today, Friday, December 4th, through Monday, December 7th, at midnight EST. She will either refund through PayPal or you can wait for a revised invoice through Paypal. (Please use code “anniversary#2” in the notes section to get your 20% off.)

[I keep forgetting to add these disclaimers — Sandra is an advertiser, as was Wendy, yesterday. However, I choose the patterns and what to write about them, and I don't get any direct payment for writing about sales. I just like to.]

Can you hear this pattern's voiceover? I can. Listen:

*I* am an individual. In fact, I am unremittingly individualist. I practise (see, look, I use a British spelling, despite being from Iowa) individualism. You might say I have individualismo. Or -ma. Individualisma. That ineffable aura of being ME and ONLY Me. Nobody else can be me, because I am an individual as you can get. Even when I was conceived, I was an individual—nobody even considered that I might be part of a conjoined twin. Look, I must hold my head from the unbearable mental strain of my individualism! (Also, this is my good side.) I should bottle this individualness and sell it. I would call it Indi.Vidual. Because random punctuation is so individualistic! Also, it would smell purple.

Pay no attention to the wannabe over there in pink. If she were a true individualist she would wear black, like me. Also, she only has one piece of asymmetrical clothing! Total amateur.

That said, I totally would have worn this in 1986. If you would wear it in 2010 (because there's no way you're sewing this before the end of the year, let's not kid ourselves here) click on the image and buy it (warning: it's classic Miyake so it is VERY EXPENSIVE) from Wendy at Pattern Stash, because she is having a sale! 15% for Dress a Day readers. Go nuts!

So over the Thanksgiving break I FINALLY made a BurdaStyle pattern … this one above, Heidi. (The picture above is NOT the one I made, but one from Isobel M — I'll get pictures of mine up soon, maybe even with me wearing them, ulp — but I did want to show one all made up, and not just the pattern illustration. And anyway, Isobel's is LIBERTY!)

Anyway, I actually made this twice over the holiday break, which should tell you how easy it is. I thought I would dislike printing out and taping together the pattern, but in fact it was very easy and soothing. I also discovered Netflix streaming video over the holiday weekend, and managed to inhale Bleak House and Our Mutual Friend … I have a BBC Dickens obsession. (Not to mention a "watching David Morrissey lose his shit" obsession, cf. Blackpool and State of Play.) Costume drama plus scotch tape is an incredibly relaxing combination.

I also liked the heavier paper — compared to pattern tissue, it was super-easy to alter, and having all the sizes meant I was able to cut different pieces for the bodice and skirt without worrying about doing anything unfixable — if I screwed up, I could just print those pages out again and start over. (And there's a nearly endless supply of BBC costume dramas, after all …)

Alterations I made: I raised the neckline about an inch. I cut one size for the shoulders, another for the bust, and a third for the waist/hips, and it was simple to smooth the pattern lines to do that. I changed the tucks to darts on the front and back bodice (but left them as soft pleats in the skirt). I shortened it by about three inches, to hit just above the knee in one version and just below the knee in the other. I also made the pockets about an inch and a half deeper — when I put things in my pockets, I like them to stay there (with the exception of my hands).

The pattern went together really quickly, even though the bodice is lined (my fabrics were heavy so I didn't line the skirt). And compared to what I usually sew, Heidi uses *no* fabric. Seriously, I got away with less than two yards of 54" for this one, with maybe another yard for the bodice lining. Needless to say, I am re-evaluating the "short cuts" in my fabric closet in the light of this new information. I have some green cotton satin that is begging to be this dress.

I really should post pictures of the ones I made. I'll try to get them up tomorrow, if I can find my camera connector cable. I'm planning on wearing them with a cardigan (quel surprise) and maybe even a belt, and I have to say it reminds me of nothing so much as the Michelle Obama look: nice dress, sensible cardigan, cute belt (link is to her Tussaud's figure, so if that's not iconic …). If it's good enough for the First Lady of the United States, it's good enough for me …

[Also, I haven't really looked at how the new FTC blogging rules affect me, but I should point out that while BurdaStyle is an advertiser here, I paid for this pattern (it wasn't a freebie).]

First question: is the woman in green looking at the woman in brown and saying "Yeah, I guess the bows were really too much"? (Pattern from Serendipity Vintage on Etsy.)

Question the second: if I were to write an article (say, for Sew News) about working with vintage patterns, what kinds of questions would you want to have answered in it?

Holly (of Lucite Box Vintage) is having a holiday sale — 20% off anything site wide! Use the coupon code HOLLYDAZE; sale runs through the end of the day Monday.

You might do worse than snapping up this pink dress — be sure to click through to see ALL the pictures, there's some really interesting construction details here …

If you know someone who loves to sew and are stumped for a suitable holiday present, this list might help …

Books: Sewing books are always a good idea, and you really can't have too many. There's always more than one way to accomplish any given task or technique, and the more sewing instruction you read, the better the odds of you finding the way that 'clicks' with you.

First on the list this year is a lovely new book from Ruth Singer (whose blog you may know):

It's called, in full, The Sewing Bible: A Modern Manual of Practical and Decorative Sewing Techniques and it's really a lovely book. Clear, well-illustrated, and helpful, with a range of projects from the very simple (envelope-back pillow) to the more elaborate (handbag with pockets, circle skirt).

A book that is probably on a lot of internet-enabled sewists' list this year is Diana Eng's Fashion Geek: Clothes Accessories Tech. I know that there are projects in this book that I've been eyeballing for some time …

And it's not quite in the "books" category, but either a subscription to Threads Magazine, or, if you're feeling really Santa-like, the new giant all-the-issues Threads DVD.

Fabric: It is a truth universally acknowledged that a sewist in possession of some fabric is always in want of MORE fabric. However, if you don't sew, buying fabric for someone else can be a bit tricky. What do you buy? How much do you buy? I think you can never go wrong with high-quality natural fibers (or, of course, Liberty). My advice? Either buy four yards of something gorgeous, or try a gift certificate to one of the posher online fabric shops.

Notions: Go. Nuts. Seriously. Wander into a chain sewing store and hit the notions aisle with a basket and an open mind. Don't know what a bodkin is? Dump it in the basket. Throw in whatever little tools or gadgets or thingamagigs take your fancy, put them all in a nice covered basket, and call it a day. If your recipient already has one of whatever it is you picked up, she could probably use another, newer, sharper one, and if she doesn't, she'll have fun figuring out how to use it. Wandering in a store is more fun, but if you don't know where to go (or, cough, have ridiculous problems with going to a "girly store"), try Clotilde's or Nancy's online or even Amazon.

Patterns: This, surprisingly, is less fraught than buying fabric, IF you already feel confident when buying clothes for the same person. You just choose a pattern that looks like something your recipient would wear, IN THE RIGHT SIZE. Remember, pattern sizing is different from "normal" sizing, so go by measurements and not the size number. A better strategy is to get a fancy vintage pattern in an approximate size (or even a couple of patterns) so that you have some redundancy in the system. Bonus points for saying "These were so beautiful, they reminded me of you," when you give them.

And if your budget is tight this year (and whose isn't?) one of the best gifts you can give to someone who loves to sew is time. Offer to run a weekend's worth of errands, make dinner, answer the phone, watch the baby, walk the dog, or anything else that would allow for a four- or five-hour uninterrupted block of time. (And make the sewing time real time — no interruptions, if you please, unless someone is bleeding or on fire.)

Do you sew and have a gift wishlist of your own? Leave a comment!

ONE-LINE STORY: Sometimes Samantha just didn't understand modern art.

There is NOTHING about this pattern that I don't love … and it's available from Jen at MOMSPatterns, and it's 20% off today through November 30, 2009! Just use coupon code 'toomuchturkey' when you check out.

ONE-LINE STORY: Amanda hoped that no one would realize that she was actually a blow-up doll.

This pattern is also on sale, from Sheila at Out of the Ashes: 15% all orders, through Sunday night — use the coupon code "TURKEY" at checkout!

And while you're clickety-clicking around, this dress is super, uber, mega-cute:

It's being listed by my friend JZ, who posed it on my dressform (set to its daintiest size!) in my garage. So I saw this in person, and if it had been my size or any reasonable approximation thereof, I would have bought it on the spot. So if you're on the teeny side, you should REALLY check this out!