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...