Conversations With A Dress

Shhhhhh.......can you hear them?





Fade in.....

The Setting: Outside at 5 a.m. on a Saturday morning
The Characters: Retro Grace and Bubblegum

Retro Grace: Good morning!
Bubblegum: (Yawns.) Oh. Hi. Where in the world am I?
Retro Grace: On the back porch.
Bubblegum: Oh. OK. Gee, why am I up so high?
Retro Grace: I think that plant over there needs some water. Check it out for me.
Bubblegum: Hmmm.....yes, it looks a little dry.
Retro Grace: Well, let's hope it gets rained on today.
Bubblegum: What???? Aren't you going to water it????
Retro Grace: Nope.
Bubblegum: Why on earth not????
Retro Grace: Time is running short, kid. Less than 48 hours to go.
Bubblegum: Oh, no! I forgot! You have to go back to wor-----
Retro Grace: That's enough out of you, smarty pants. I'm tired of warning you! Don't you say that word!
Bubblegum: Gee, you don't have to be so touchy............can I ask you a question?
Retro Grace: Sure thing. But go ahead. My coffee is getting cold on me.
Bubblegum: I like these cute little spaghetti straps.......but what if they're too long for The Princess?
Retro Grace: Don't worry. I have sharp scissors and nerves of steel.
Bubblegum: Ahem. (Clears throat.) Ahem.
Retro Grace: Are you choking, or what?
Bubblegum: AHEM.
Retro Grace: Out with it, kid. Time is wasting.
Bubblegum: AHEM. Don't you think I need A HEM???
Retro Grace: Well, I'll be darned. You sure do.
Bubblegum: And maybe some buttonholes, too, while you're at it?
Retro Grace: My, my, you're a pushy little thing, aren't you?

Retro Grace takes Bubblegum down and goes inside. Pours more coffee and climbs up the stairs....

Fade out.

Some Assembly Is Required

I've been to the sewing room! Meet Bubblegum, all cut up and ready to go:




I am using the vintage dress pattern Simplicity 1149 from the earlier post. Just check out the details on these little bodice pieces:





Tiny little darts for a perfect fit. And it's lined. And check out the scallops on this piece:



Why the Big Four don't reincorporate these little dressmaker details in their children's patterns anymore is beyond me. After studying those scallops and deciding that they were actually hand drawn, I put my mind to figuring out exactly how the deed was done. Here's my theory:




Works for me. And easy to duplicate at home, too. Just draw another line about 1/4 inch inside the existing seam line, put your spool on there, and draw the scallops, going around the spool until you hit the intersecting lines!

Any time I'm making something that has a critical corner, I like to mark the sewing line on the corner. Since I used fusible knit interfacing on the front and back bodices, I fused first and marked those corners second:









This is just one of those little things that seems to help me get good results the first time around.

One change I made was with the sash. The original directions have you cut the sash pieces and narrow hem the edges. As you can see in the next picture, there is a distinct difference between the right and wrong sides of this fabric.




So I listened when the Fabric Spoke To Me and said "if you cut me double, and sew me up with a 1/4" seam, no one will see my ugly side, and you won't have to use the Bad Language when you do the narrow hem thingee." So I did. See the sash?




And the cute little bodice with its little spaghetti straps?




Next up--the skirt!

Blogger is Really Weird

Or maybe I am just overtaxed at the moment. At any rate, scroll down. Today's post is listed as Sunday. Whatever.

I Wore A Dress Today

Yes I did. I put on A Dress, loaded myself into the car, and went on a road trip to the not-so-local Joann's today. What prompted this visit?

I've spent some time in my closet. And the laundry room. And the sewing room, where today's menu includes an abundance of fabric with a nice side dressing of unironed ironing.

I've gained 7 pounds this summer. Yall remember all about the darn bicycle, don't cha? This weight gain is definitely not my fault. It has absolutely no relationship to the amount of time I spend with a fork in one hand and a knife in the other.

I'm sorta tallish. Well, tall actually. I come in a little over 5'10". I have the long Inspector Gadget model arms with matching legs. To add insult to injury, I am also long-waisted. I have never bought a long-sleeved anything off the rack that was truly long-sleeved, on me at any rate. I always end up looking for three-quarter length sleeves to begin with, because that's what I'm going to wind up with in the end. And not once in my lifetime, not a single solitary time, have I ever had to hem up a pair of store bought pants. These are the reasons I don't shop. I hate, loathe, and despise clothes shopping. I always end up with clothes that don't fit well, are too big (to compensate for all the fitting issues), and are just plain aggravating to wear. There are things in my closet that I just plain won't wear anymore--they make me so miserable that I actually get mean when I wear them. Needless to say, the local Goodwill store is about to get a ton of barely used merchandise.

Even though I can barely stand to type out these words (don't worry, I have already fortified myself with five cups of coffee and some Jello chocolate pudding), the dreaded event is upon me. In six days I have to go back to school. There. I said it.

I need some clothes. And I need them now. My problem is that I have trouble facing reality. The reality is that I am not going to lose 30 pounds in five days. Heck, I'm not going to lose 30 pounds in the next year. Until now, this refusal to face reality has kept me from making clothes for myself, which I used to do all the time. Because in the back of my little mind was that little voice that kept saying "If you make that beautiful thing now, it won't fit you when you lose weight."

I'm wearing earplugs now. I am going to make myself some clothes that fit me. If I only get one piece done every two weeks, my outlook on life will be much more pleasant. Plus, wearing one thing that fits will encourage me to make another thing that fits, and so on and so on. See how much progress I'm making already? I'm actually getting excited about this! See how the Wearing Of A Dress can improve one's thinking skills?

The Force Was With Me. Here's evidence:

I think I wound up with ten pieces for tops/blouse/skirts/dresses. And enough black linen for a skirt and some slacks. All at 60% off, too!

And the patterns:

I know yall spotted those two dress patterns, didn't you? I thought so. If any of you have made either one of those dresses yet, please drop me a comment and let me know how yours turned out. They are Vogue 8382 and Simplicity 0521 (the Threads dress).

And no, I'm not giving up Little Dresses. This year I'm not teaching extended day. I've done that for the past few years, and it consumes a couple of hours each day of my at-home time. So I'm not doing it any more. That extra time, with some good advance menu planning, should translate into more sewing/cooking/sewing/smocking/sewing/laundry/sewing/cleaning/sewing time than ever.

Now if I can just get this dang income tax return done today ...................

The Hanger

You may have noticed that I take photos of all my projects On The Hanger.

What you don't know is that The Hanger always goes home with The Dress. Always. Without fail.


Now if I were a Hanger Gourmet, I would decorate The Hanger before sending it off to live in the Closet Full of Dresses. But I don't. I send it out naked. Why would I waste time dressing a hanger, when it's girls who crave the dresses? I'll leave the Hanger Dressing to someone else.

Here we have a totally naked hanger. It wants to go live in the Closet Full of Dresses, too.




It's been hanging out with this pile of dress fabric:





The Princess came to babysit me, and while she was here, the fabric Spoke To Her. She was checking the yardage on this one (those are her fat little legs in the picture, not mine):





And she thought this might make a nice spring frock, with a nice full skirt to cover her dainty little knees:




You can tell that The Sandman was also hanging around that afternoon, can't you?


She liked this one a lot. See how she's holding it up to check the color against her complexion?







It just so happens that this vintage pattern mysteriously appeared in the sewing room. It's Simplicity 1149, from the wonderful pattern makers of 1955:



Wouldn't this be nice for those sultry August afternoons? Here's the back:



I think the sash is a must-have, don't you agree? Not sure yet about the little jacket, though. It might conceal the total cuteness of the dress, I'm thinking.

Oh, well. Back to the dread income tax. I'm busily depreciating my assets, which is really strange if you think about it. Mother Nature is doing the exact same thing to me.

Bluebonnet for a Blue-Eyed Babe

In celebration of her first birthday, The Princess had her portrait made this past week. What's a girl to wear? Bluebonnet, of course!



Here she is practicing patty cake!








I love the fullness and complete girliness of this dress. Look at the back:

You may remember that this is the Mary De pattern from the Childrens Corner. I will definitely make another one of these.

I have this theory, see. I firmly believe in dresses for girls--little girls, big girls, skinny girls, fat girls, young girls, old girls, and girls with skinned-up knees. My theory is that if I unleash an avalanche of dresses in their direction and smother my granddaughters with constant and regular doses of them, they will develop a love of dresses and live with me forever in the Land of Dressdom.

And I know that I am not alone in this theory. I read and surf blogs, too, you know. There are tons of you out there who share this theory, too, whether you are in tune to it or not. Of course, some of you, like me, are completely Out Of The Closet on this topic. Erin over at Dress A Day comes to mind immediately. For all the rest of you, don't be afraid. The water's not deep. Just jump in the boat!

The official On The Hanger photo of the front:

And the close-up:

On The Hanger back view:

And the close-up:

I just adore that overlapped double button closure, don't you?

And by the way--Number One Son recently bought a falling down house and has started renovations on it. Check out the link to his blog (Be It Ever So Humble) in the sidebar!

She's Showing Her Slee-vage

Still busy working on the wool sweater-I know it's insane, but yall know what I say about the heat in the South-which is Eloise from the Noro Knits book by Jane Ellison, by the way. Here's the sleeves, all curled up on their little selves:




They curl because they are worked in reverse stockinette stitch (or the back side of the knitting--geesh, isn't that a much easier way to understand it? but I digress).

Next we have two fronts, a left one and a right one, up close and personal-like:




If you look carefully at that photo, you will understand why I am busily knitting a third front.

Why? Because I originally bought three huge hanks of this stuff (3000 yards) and since it's all hand-dyed, each hank varies. What looked to me to be identical stuff actually has knitted up into two very obviously different colorations. So I am making another front out of a more closely matching hank. I figure I'll have about 1200 yards left over when I'm all done. Scarf, anyone?

Oh, yeah, I'm still cooking--supper Thursday night:



Supper Friday night:




Carbs, anyone?

I stand at the bottom of the staircase and whisper "food" and these guys appear EVERY time!