Wednesday, November 7, 2012

You Be the Judge!




What do you think? Am I totally off my rocker or is this a cute little dress? Here's the story



Sleeve opened. I cut the bodice from them.

Shirt front. I used as the skirt front.
Shirt pattern sewn together
Pajamas maybe?

Several years ago I wore whatever I had regardless of fit. Now that I can sew I want things that fit me well. No more swimming in my clothes. This bright blue knit is medium to heavy weight. I could have cut it down and made a shirt but the sleeves would have been too short so I considered other options. Why not a fun little dress? I could wear it over a long sleeved tee in the winter and alone in the summer.  The blue alone was boring so why not add some equally bright red lace? (Maybe this is color saturation?) 
It's big, Bold, and beautiful!
I added the velvet bow because I needed something to give me a waistline and hide the seam from the piece I added to lengthen the dress so it wouldn't be too short.
See the seam I am trying to hide.

A cute Dior bow with an amazing vintage button.
The bodice was just too much big blue space so I added the double pointy collar since I had triangle pieces left over when I evened up the skirt sides.
Closeup of cool double collar

Aren't these the neatest buttons!

Now my Father thinks the lace is ugly and at a glance looks like Grandma's slip has slipped. My Mother thinks the lace is too bright, it makes you go WOW. Now I just want to say, I asked for their polite, honest feedback, as I am asking you. 
I think the lace is what takes the dress from just a dress to A FUN DRESS. I am not a wall flower why should my clothes be. I cannot point to any trend this is following other than the general add lace trend but it doesn't seem so abnormally different from a lot of dresses out there right now. Am I wrong? 
Out here on the prairie this is what we usually see,
Jeans and a button up shirt
Jeans



Nothing is wrong with wearing jeans and shirt but that is pretty much the entire wardrobe of the ranchers. It perfectly fits their lifestyles. They cannot wear a dress out riding or working cows. Wearing a dress can be dangerous with all the wind we have. Then there is me, the local seamstress that spends most of her time making stuff in her basement. So does this dress seem weird because it is so different from what we usually see or is it just different because I spend all my time in my basement breathing fabric fumes?
I eagerly await your feedback and hope everyone has a lovely day!

2 comments:

Cation Designs said...

I like the contrast of the blue and red a lot, but then I may not be the best judge of normal clothing :)

My favorite aspect is definitely the double pointed collar, though! I may need to steal that idea from you (if I can figure out how it's done, that is!).

EmSewCrazy said...

Well I love your clothes so if you like it, it must be ok! :) I love the contrast too!

I actually stole the collar idea from someone else's inspiration photo. After I finished mine I went back and looked at the original inspiration and found mine ended up quite different.
Here's a link to the original inspiration: http://www.brooklynindustries.com/spring-knits/lyric-pullover-fifties-vintage-style-spring-sweater
Here's the pinboard I found it on. This lady has one of the best collections of T-shirt ideas. http://pinterest.com/emadethis/t-shirt-variants/

The collar is pretty easy. I used the triangle pieces I cut from the shirt sides. Basically sew two triangles together. Turn right sides out. Stack on top of each other and slightly stretch to fit neckline. I didn't have enough knit to cut a facing, which I think would be the best way to finish this neckline. So I trimmed the edges, my knit was heaver weight so there was a lot of bulk, rolled the edge over on the basting line I had made and hand stitched it down so it would Not show on the right side.
Hope that made a bit of sense. If you decide to do it and run into any problems let me know and I will try to help.