The Facts
Fabric: Cotton leftovers from other projects in stash
Patterns: Self-drafted
Year: Contemporary
Notions: Zip 79c, bias tape made from pillowcase in stash, thread
Time to complete: 4 hours
First worn: May 13th 2012
Wear again? Yes, but bodice needs darting
Total Cost: $0.79
The challenge: “Mix It Up: Using at least two different prints in an outfit”.
Oh dear, this week. Nope, I’m not going to make any excuses. Let’s just say it was a pooey week, kids off sick, doctors visits, x-rays, teaching (marshalling) 27 nine year olds making our own Jackson Pollock tribute (big fun, but lots of prep and clearing up)….and me trying to make a dress I’ve been planning for ages…
No, not this dress.
The plan was to take 9 different Dr. Seuss prints I have in my stash and make a maxi dress with a patchwork skirt.
This was my sewing lair cutting table on Monday morning:
And this was my bodice on Monday afternoon:
And this was my dress by Saturday afternoon:
Your eyes do not deceive you there – that is a sleeve sewn to a neckline instead of an armhole. And that is a dress without a bottom half.
Had this been in my teens or my twenties, or even my thirties, I would have curled up in a corner and cried. Luckily, I’ve gained some perspective in my forties and my verdict on my Dr Seuss Patchwork-Wonder Dress was “sod this for a game of soldiers, let’s go and see The Avengers, I’ll make something simpler in the morning”.
The Dr Seuss Patchwork-Wonder Dress will have to see the light on another day. This was not its day. Not even Tim Gunn could have convinced me to “make it work”. I needed a break. I needed to go out with my kids and have some fun……and wow, was The Avengers the right choice! Love, love, loved it.
So on Sunday morning I woke up bright-eyed and bushy tailed and made this dress instead.
I’m Thor……..well you shouldn’t have dropped that hammer on your toe then. Bu-dum tish!
It’s a rectangular piece of floral fabric 3 inches larger than my bust size, with a flamingo print one and a half times the length of this gathered to the bottom edge of the top piece. And a floral bottom flounce twice the length of the top rectangle, gathered to the length of the flamingo piece. Oh, and top straps. And a visible zip because it was a nice lime green and had a cool pull. I chose the two prints because the sizings of their images seemed balanced and they both had lime greens in them. I also made some bias tape out of a pillowcase in a complementary purple to one in the floral print. Does that make any sense?
It was going to be called the “Hulk Smash” Dress but I suspect that Marvel and Disney probably have that trademarked and their lawyers primed to fire off cease and desist letters more accurately than Hawkeye. Why was it going to be called that? Because there two ways to wear the dress. I can wear it ‘backwards’ and it looks slightly more conventional….more outwardly ‘normal’….
You’ll have to use your imagination to think of this as the front….just pretend I’m doing a Cousin It impression. Or I can wear it ‘frontways’, less conventional, more monstrous….and has the tendency to make me do this:
And this….
Oh dear, I look more like Ricky Gervais in that one. Perhaps I should try another Thor impression…
Don’t even dare suggest I do my Captain America….
Luckily for you all, Goth Child insisted that the light was getting too bad for photos so my Hawkeye, Black Widow and Ironman impressions will have to wait for another day….. Just you wait for Diamond Jubilee challenge week……you’re not going to believe my Queen Victoria does Nick Fury impression!
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