Good morning, friends! Did you have a lovely weekend? I spent the better part of mine cleaning and organizing and have come to the conclusion that I have a serious problem bordering on clinical with fabric and craft supplies. They’re like bunnies, multiplying when I’m not even looking! I also made some unfortunate-looking but delicious homemade chocolate-covered marshmallows, but that’s a story for another time.
Part flapper, part I-wish-Spring-were-here-hopefulness, part Valentine’s Dress and 100% pink (ombre in parts, but still very, very pink), this smashing dress was a doozy.
It’s a very unique and striking fabric, of which I only had one yard, so I had to shorten the dress by two inches. And then realized that I had cut out the wrong front skirt piece and lost a few more inches (I guess it makes a really long dress, because I think the length is fine even with lost inches).
I discovered that miniature tassels on voile make it very hard to undo seams. Because the voile is so sheer, I had to add a lining but I couldn’t, for the life of me, do it correctly and the fabric kept tearing every time I attacked it with a seam ripper (sob). Thank goodness for Rae’s awesome video tutorial that I finally found after three failed attempts.
Because of above errors, what should have been a quick and easy pattern from this book took me a jillion hours and required several extra cups of coffee.
On the upside, I learned how to make french seams, and can now add a full lining to anything with my eyes practically closed. In this particular case, I used plain white muslin.
I almost gave up and resigned myself to creating an awkward midi-length skirt, but I was somehow able to salvage the dress in the end. Look at that beautiful drape – love love love.
(all this posing is exhausting and prompted a lie-down). Now, I know that so much pink is not everyone’s cup of tea, and in fact, K has not been a fan of the color since she decided Disney princesses are uncool last year. But for some reason, I am having a torrid love affair with this hue and can’t get enough. I do suppose it would look rather fetching in blue too, and K would probably be much more excited if it were (the power of Photoshop!):
I leave you with a gem from one of our conversations this weekend:
K: Mommy, you’re the best mommy in the world!
Me: Really??
K: Yeah, I’ve trained you so well!
That you have, my little munchkin, that you have…
Waw, stunning dress! I’ve never seen such fabric before. Love your Photoshop-trick too 😉
love to learn new skills! i’m a sewing/knitting tool hoarder as well! living in America there are just too many cool things to choose from. (i need someone to blame, why not America?)
the dress fits K very nicely. have a happy Monday!
Gorgeous dress, stunning fabric!
LOVE!!!
It never fails… it’s always the easiest projects that ends up being the most difficult for me. I’m digging the Photoshop trick. If you didn’t mention it, I would’ve totally thought it was another dress.
Thanks, everyone! I should have included more colors with my Photoshop trick – it’s fun to see how color can really change the feel of an outfit. 🙂
Oh, it’s so lovely! My daughter would of course LOVE the pink. Sometimes you find that perfect fabric and it doesn’t really matter what color it is, eh? Looks like some tricky stuff to work with but it’s a beautiful result.
Beautiful! I love the ribbon closure, it’s so sweet. And I’m with Kristin, my daughter would also adore this dress.
Kristin and Robin, it’s so ironic that I’m the one so much more into pink…but I think my fervor is catching because K grudgingly admitted she “kind of” liked the dress.
So glad you persevered, for that is one stunning dress! Funny, I was just paging through that book last night and looked at this pattern – amazing how different a completed garment can look based on the fabric choice. I think the color is stunning, and is set off so beautifully against K’s dark hair.
And glad to hear you’re so “train-able”:)
So true on the fabric choice, Lucinda. I’ve been loving seeing all the Geranium dresses in blogland lately, and they’re all so pretty and feel like completely different dresses because of the various fabrics.
ah, more gorgeousness. sigh.
this is just tooooo gorgeous! I want one for myself in every shade!