Sandra at Sandritocat sent me this fauxlero — doesn't it look real? The illustrator must have had a touch of PT Barnum in him.
Although, personally, if I were trying to "sell" the fauxlero, I wouldn't make Plaid Dress look quite so much as if she were trying to figure out what smelled so bad. (Either that or she's trying to see if the other woman is REALLY wearing an identical hat. And shoes. And earrings. And face.)
(This week's pattern story is brought to us courtesy of Rita at Cemetarian. Everything is 20% off with the coupon code FIESTY, for the next five days!)
Beige Dress: I get SO BORED waiting for the rest of the wall to come into being.
Blue Dress: Tell me about it. How am I supposed to decide on window treatments if there aren't any windows?
Beige Dress: When they said that life would be different at Flatland Estates, I didn't think it would be THIS different. Or this boring. Plus, I think I don't love my husband, Flash, any more.
Blue Dress: Well, that was the shortest distance between two points.
I love this dress, but I think I would have posted it even if I didn't because I love the surreal zebra mask. So much better, and funnier, than modeling the dresses wearing giant sunglasses. I understand the desire for anonymity, but giant sunglasses (especially worn inside) just make people look like drug addicts, or wannabe celebrities. But the zebra mask! The zebra mask is genius. (And the name of the Etsy shop is Animal Head Vintage, so there you go!)
And look at the POCKETS!
If you want this, click on the images to visit the listing (this seller has a lot of nice stuff, actually). Good luck!
Sorry for the radio silence the last couple days — I had a cold and an unexpected trip, which, taken together, meant I was in a Land of No Blogging. (I do NOT have the swine flu. Do not panic. Go about your normal business.)
Yep, I'm wearing this dress right now. It's the same pattern (Vogue 9760) once more — in fact, I made this one BEFORE I made the last two ones that I showed you. Which is why the print doesn't match as well.
I really like the orange facing. It's probably what makes me happiest about this dress. Aside from the fact that it's Liberty fabric, of course. I forget what the name of this Liberty pattern is, but it shows up on ebay.co.uk pretty often, if you are now struck by a boundless yearning for it, just keep an eye out.
And in a behind-the-scenes look, here's the hem:
I love this pattern — probably more so than it deserves, but hey, the heart wants what it wants, yes? — and I have one more cut out on the sewing table. I wouldn't put it past me, either, to make a couple more before I finally stop …
MANY thanks to Kay, who sent the link to this pattern this morning.
I feel that I should find this pattern in my size and make it up immediately, in case we are ever invaded and I find myself leading a cell of the Resistance. (I used to be obsessed with resistance narratives, especially Story of a Secret State
My point is, with this dress, the beret, and the jaunty neckerchief, I would SO be a leader of the Resistance. I'd have some unobjectionable cover story — running an orphanage? Where some of the "children" were actually "little people" AND demolition experts? — but in reality, I'd be obtaining false papers, robbing weapons transports, engaging in acts of sabotage, and using those fantastic pockets to hide my snub-nosed derringer. (And as long as I'm writing this, at some point, I get to fly a prop plane.)
Too bad my twin sister, the quisling in yellow, tries to betray me. Luckily, we knew she was up to no good, so we distracted her with a decoy mission while spiriting the real fugitives out of the country (that's where the prop plane comes in).
Or, you know, you could just make this dress and become the leader of something else (Resistances being fewer and farther between these days). Good luck!
Sheila at Out of the Ashes sent me a notice that she's having a big spring cleaning sale this week — 15% off, use the coupon code SPRINGCLEAN to get the discount.
This dress calls to me, more for the totally adorable pockets than for the kind of "huh?" capelet. And perhaps, just a little, for the green polka-dot hat. Some day when I don't have anything better to do I'm going to wear a green polka-dot hat, just for the hell of it. And whenever anyone says anything about it, I'm going to pretend I have NO IDEA what they're talking about.
Them: "Nice hat!"
Me: [blank stare]
I think I would have to do the same thing if I ever made a dress with a capelet, like this one. Either that, or I'd be humming the old Mighty Mouse theme song all day long. (HERE I come to SAVE the DAY!)
You know what else I can't see myself doing? Wearing a scarf that sticks out from between two buttons of the bodice, like Pink Dress in the background. I think the other two women are talking about how she crashed their Kapelet Klatsch without the necessary accouterments. (While doing their Seekrit Kapelet Klatsch Elbow-Shake, of course.)
Green Hat: The *nerve* of her! And what's with the scarf?
Floral Dress: I know! But pass the Kapelet Kahlua Kocktails round again, will you, darling? I'm losing my buzz!
Green Hat: HERE I come to SAVE the DAY!
VOICEOVER:
Here we see some rare examples of the species Homo Patternenvelopus.
Notice the older specimens are shy, and avoid direct eye contact (a sign of challenge). The young, however, are bolder, unless they venture too far from the mother. They also have not yet developed the distinctive hand coverings of the adults.
Homo Patternenvelopus breeds fissiparously, and the sprats grow to full size slowly. It is not known what triggers their reproduction, or how long it takes. Although, from the number of adult specimens we see with missing limbs, but without nearby sprats, it seems many of the sprats fail to thrive.
While Homo Patternenvelopus tends to congregate in twos and threes, they are not especially social animals, and often seem to treat each other with disdain, as you see here.
Remember that these creatures can be quite dangerous. Keep your hands inside the vehicle at all times. If provoked, their lightning reflexes and razor-sharp teeth can cause serious damage, or even death.
(From Wendy at Pattern Stash, who will be offering a 15% discount to Dress A Day readers beginning today, and continuing through Saturday and Sunday!)
Is this one:
It's from fabric I bought very recently from FashionFabricsClub, and it's the same pattern (Vogue 9670) as Tuesday's dress. (I wore yet ANOTHER version yesterday, but I didn't have time to post about it!)
I didn't do anything fancy with this neck facing except cut it with the stripes running the other way; it's so lightweight that I didn't want to fuss with it. Not that you can really see it in this picture:
And the back, which I'm afraid doesn't match from the bodice to the skirt AT ALL, whoops:
The stripes on the front matched more-or-less accidentally, but then I didn't have enough fabric to recut the back skirt to make them match on the back. Next time I'll know how to do it, it's simultaneously easier (to get the fabric cut right) and trickier (to get the pleats to match right) than I thought. It was complicated by the fact that I've adjusted this pattern to be about an inch bigger all around at the waist, which means I always have to re-jigger the pleats, anyway.
The zipper is a bit nicer on this version:
I hadn't sewn up the hem yet when I took these photos so you can see it in the pictures — it's gray bias tape and hem tape.
My only uncertainty about this dress is just HOW much it's going to wrinkle today. It is pretty lightweight shirting cotton, after all … but it's also really nice and cool and feels great!
Is this one:
It's from fabric I bought in China, and it's the same pattern (Vogue 9670) as this dress.
Here's the neck facing, which is a bright pink that matches the pink in the flowers:
And the back:
I actually had fun matching the print here, on the center front and back seams. It wasn't as nit.jpgcky or as tedious as I imagined it would be, maybe because the repeat of the pattern is a manageable size.
What I didn't do very well was the zipper:
The hem is done with pale blue bias tape but the sleeves are done with a pale aqua bias tape. Because I had some left over, and because it looked cool. (You can see that in the top photo.)
This is a really comfortable dress — so comfortable, in fact, that I've made it four times now. I'm wearing the next two over the next few days, and I'll post pictures of them tomorrow and Thursday!
First item of business: Lisa at the Vintage Fashion Library is a donation/sale event: Now through April 19th, you get 15% off your purchase price with keyword PINK, and 10% of your purchase price will be donated to the Susan G. Komen Foundation for breast cancer research.
(I really want this pattern at the VFL but it's not my size. Anyone got one in a 36/38? I don't have time to grade stuff right now …)
Check out these super-cute uniform dresses! (Thanks, Jesse, for the link.) I haven't clicked through to the source page because I'm sure they are depressingly expensive. If I'm wrong feel free to let me know.
Just an update: did you know that the Vintage Pattern Wiki is one of the top sites on Wikia, in # of articles? (We're the top site if measured in pure stylishness.) Let's get cranking and knock those World of Warcraft guilds back on their heels!
Hana tells me there's a Duro-like tunic dress pattern available as a free download on the Burda site … it looks pretty cute!
That's all for this random Friday; check in next week for slightly more ordered posts.
A Dress A Day 