A Dress Per Day, Day 2

40% off lowest ticket price on all fabrics at Joanne's? Be still my beating heart!

I went a little crazy the other day at Joanne's going-out-of-business sale, and here's the pattern for the first new project I have to show for it.

Purchased at $1.99! Yay sales!

I've never been a big fan of maxidresses, but I just could not resist in this case. I found some gorgeous patterned satin for about $4 a yard, and purchased far more than I needed. I ended up choosing a navy blue georgette to make a contrast for the straps and waistbands, which turned out quite well if I do say so myself.

I plan on going back to Joanne's soon, since it's not fully closing until August 13th and the sales will only get more discounted until then. Plus I forgot to buy various necessaries like zippers and interfacing and have found myself at a point where I cannot proceed much farther without another shopping trip.

In the meantime, there's only one word to describe my progress:

Huzzah!

A Dress Per Day, Day 1

Here we go...

It wasn't a real project until it turned into one.

You see, I decided I needed more summer dresses. And I was coming up with these gorgeous ideas in my mind until I couldn't think straight in class anymore. So I waited. Until last Thursday, after which I had finished my first exam for Organic Chemistry II, and figured I had the whole weekend to sew to my heart's content.

First day's work: I found this pattern I had tucked away from forever ago:

I usually eschew "New Look" patterns, since they're lower quality than I usually pay for $3 (since I mostly wait until more expensive patterns are on sale for $1-2 before buying them), but there's no guessing what I was thinking at the time I bought this dinosaur.

So, digging deep, I happened to find a single piece of calico cotton fabric that was simultaneously 1). Suitable for a summer dress, 2). Had sufficient yardage to support the pattern, and most importantly, 3). Still matched my style and sensibility. Let's just say that I have a lot of random fabric left over from random projects like ... this one, I guess!

Fact: this fabric is left over from the plethora of extravagant togae I made for my high school's chapter of the Junior Classical League's annual state convention in State College, PA circa 2000. If my memory serves, it was purchased on Fabric Row in Philadelphia, PA, a location of eminent influence in my design development.

The vision of this dress did not fully come into play until it was almost fully realized. Now, behold: the Pin-up girl dress. Sexy, yet demure, red, black, white, and marvelous alllllll over.

You see?

And the detail I added just for fun:

This was finished on Friday, so I used more than one calendar day, and even though I call this "Dress per Day," I always seem to resort to finishing the last little bits for after certin deadlines. Less than 24 hours, though, so I suppose it counts!

In other news: by then a ridiculous thing had happened: I stopped by my local Joanne's Fabrics, only to find out that it was going out of business and had instituted a store-wide clearance sale. I proceeded to purchase more than a year's worth of fabric and spend the rest of the weekend enjoying the fruits of my purchases...

To be continued...