I really want to meet the woman who buys this fabric:

Why, God?  Why?

My favorite projects tend to be dresses sewn for specific events, and this past week I had to put my wardrobe sewing on hold to finish my dress for graduation.

The College of Charleston graduation takes place outside on the Cistern, the most beautiful spot on campus, and the women all wear white dresses and the men white tuxedo jackets instead of caps and gowns.  I was lucky enough to find some plain white seersucker at Hancock Fabrics on sale for about $3.50 a yard, sketched out a design on a post-it note, and sewed my dress up in the two days between moving out of my dorm and driving back to Charleston for graduation rehearsal.

Here’s the dress in action:

And one closer up, flanked by my little brothers (who obligingly wore bow-ties at my request):

Despite the rush to get it finished, I’m pretty happy with the results.

My sewing stash, while not huge compared to others I’ve seen, is pretty full when you consider that I’m only 21 and have only been sewing for a few years. Probably because I so easily bow to temptation when faced with fabric like this:

I can’t even wear this shade of green, but I love it still. And how pretty would it be with this reissued Vintage Vogue pattern? I could always make it into a skirt, to avoid wearing green near my face, but I feel like this print really cries out to be a spring-time dress. I also have a sister who looks great in all shades of green, but might not like the flowers (she live in NYC, where they wear mostly black). Decisions, decisions. I really don’t want to buy it without a project in mind (even though it’s 54″ wide and less than $6 a yard!).

In honor of another beautiful, summery day here in Charleston, I’ll post an earlier project that is quickly becoming my favorite dress.  The pattern is Simplicity 3875, view D, done in rayon challis from Hancock fabrics:

This picture was taken about 5 seconds before I spilled coffee all over the front.  Thank God it’s machine washable.

The neckline turned out a little more revealing than I would have liked, but it looks cute with a tank under it, so I’m not going to mess around with it any more.  I’m thinking of doing another in a nice batik, because it’s a great casual dress, and will work nicely for those hot DC summers. Also, in gauze it would make a great swimsuit cover-up/beach dress.  It also went together really quickly, with a minimum of swearing and sticking myself with needles – probably because there are no buttons or zippers (side note:  twice now, I’ve managed to sew through my own finger when applying a zipper.  I’m still not sure exactly how it happened, but suffice it to say, I was in a great deal of pain.  Good thing I believe in suffering for art).

Incidentally, I’m going to use the same pattern for my Capitalist Pig stunt dress.

This one actually only took about 4 hours from start to finish, which makes it a great project to run through on a busy weekend.  The picture can’t really do it justice, because the skirt looks much better when twirling, but here it is:

You also can’t tell from the picture, but it has tiny red pin dots, and pockets set into the side seams.  So, it scores high in both practicality and twirlyness.  Which are my two criteria for clothes at this point, so I’m satisfied.

Now, if I could only find someone to go swing dancing with me on Saturday…

A whole shirt dress couldn’t satisfy my craving for polka dot clothing, so my current project is a red circle skirt with little white pin dots. Fabric is basic quilting cotton from Joann’s, which I got for about $3 a yard, and which has shown an unfortunate tendency to form wrinkles that refuse to be ironed.

I made the pattern out of newspaper (I find the classified section works well for this), and used the equation for a circle to figure out what radius I needed to get a waistband of the appropriate size. This is the kind of math that even poli sci majors can handle, so imagine my surprise when I finished cutting and found that the waist was about 3 inches too wide. Still not sure exactly how it happened, but I’ll take that into account next time. I ended up inserting a back seam with a zipper to take up the slack, which saved me the horror of trying to insert an invisible zipper next to pockets.

A picture of the work in progress:

Blurry, I know, but you get the idea.

I was up until 1:30 AM sewing on the last buttons, but I’m finally done with my navy blue polka dot shirtwaist dress:

The lighting is bad, and the mess behind it is worse, but the dress turned out really well.  I improvised the skirt, which is not quite a full circle, and the button placket on the front of the skirt, which was loosely based on this beautiful dress.  It also has pockets set into the side seams of the skirt (how’s that for alliteration?) for the practicality of not having to carry a purse everywhere.

I’ve already bought the fabric for my next gazillion projects, including four dresses (one novelty that doesn’t really count), three skirts and two blouses.  I’ve maxed out my desire to do complicated things like lining up buttonholes, so I’ll probably stick with a fairly simple skirt for my next project.

When fashion magazines talk about how big nautical style is going to be this summer, as they do every March, they usually mean those awful white pants with buttons on the front, or the uninspired striped canvas bag with rope handles. I believe in a slightly more literal interpretation. Which is why I have designs on this fabric:

The picture is blurry because I kept toying with the size, but if you click on it, it’ll take you to a better picture (the magic of the Internet at work). For reference, those boats are about 2 inches tall – subtle it is not. I think a whole dress might be a little over the top, but a full skirt with a white sweater would be really cute. Much cuter than stupid sailor pants, anyway. Of course, I have three other fabrics to be sewn into skirts before I’ll allow myself to buy this one. We’ll see how long that resolution lasts.

I work part-time at a store that sells resort wear, so my work wardrobe consists entirely of t-shirts and sweatshirts that say “Charleston” across the front or are covered in fanciful beach theme designs. But what I really want is a job where I can wear this dress:

First things first, I’d need to procure some of those white, wrist-length gloves.  Then, I’d make the longer-sleeved version in deep, smoky gray wool for fall, and the short-sleeve one in garnet red.  And maybe also khaki.  And navy blue.  Can you tell I love this pattern?

I love the darts in the front, and that gathered detail in the back.  I love the length, and the long, unbroken line from shoulder to hem.  And don’t all of the women in the illustration look like they could solve a crisis without even messing up their practical-yet-stylish hair?

I’m going to have to find this pattern, which according to the wiki is from 1956, or find enough similar pieces that I can draft them together.  The front wouldn’t be hard, but that back yoke might be beyond my limited skill.

Last night, I was contemplating my need for new carry-on luggage for my trip to New York and had one of those fabulously impractical ideas that I now can’t seem to get out of my head – wouldn’t it be fun to own a vintage suitcase?

I know, I know.  They invented rolling luggage for a reason.  But it seems like that reason is mostly to keep weaklings from having to exert themselves and to allow people like me to pack too many pairs of shoes.

Think about it: If you know you aren’t going to have to lift your bag, you can talk yourself into packing heavy books you won’t read and high heels you won’t wear.  But if you have to lug a bag around by the handles, everything gets weighed and reconsidered before it gets packed.   At least, that’s how I justified firing up ebay and searching for vintage suitcases.  There’s something very appealing about the idea of toting around a light blue vintage hard-side suitcase while wearing a full-skirted dress you sewed yourself.

I eventually bought a heavily discounted Jansport duffel bag and almost matching laptop bag, both of which are stuffed with stiflingly practical features like backpack straps and water bottle pockets.  But I get the feeling that this urge to own something a little cuter and much less functional isn’t going to just go away.  So I’m watching a few items on eBay.

You know.  Just in case.