The things that keep me up at night

So I was putzing around the internet, avoiding both sewing and my bed, when I spied with my little eye something wonderful to behold?

OMG CAN YOU BELIEVE THE VAST AMOUNT OF AWESOMENESS CONTAINED IN ONE GORGEOUS, MAGNIFICENT , WONDEROUS GARMENT??

Must.have.one.for my very own.

This deliciousness was brought to life by the beautifully talented Frances at Polka Polish. Wanna see more?? Lucky for you, there's a whole blog post dedicated to perfection here. Oh and lookie, she wore it for St Paddy's with a green crinoline, just when I think I couldn't love one garment any harder.

::le sigh::

She says it's a fabric beast but you know what? I have 7 yards of seersucker upstairs (don't ask) and you know, could there be a better use for that much fabric? COULD THERE??

You know there couldn't, otherwise, why would I be using so many CAPS??? AND QUESTION MARKS???

There couldn't and thus, for obvious reasons, I cannot rest until I find something similar to make my very own.

Of course, there isn't a copy to beheld, except for one in a 30 inch bust and look, I'm not paying $18+ and still have to resize the pattern. So alas, the search continues.

Unless I can come up with a clever way to hack up a princess seamed and/or dropped waist 50's era pattern to accommodate my desperate desires. Please tell me someone, anyone out there in Sewlandia has some sort of inkling of how I go about this.

I will simply die, DIE I SAY if I cannot have some amazingness for my very own.

Did I say die? Because yeah, DIE!

So go ye therefore, my minions and bring back greatness.

Decisions, decisions

I'm finally working on the Easter, ahem, I mean Spring dresses after more than a week of inexcusable procrastination. Don't ask me why I'm admitting that I've just been lazy. I have a two and a half month old pudgelet. He's like a built in excuse. He's also a very good baby, I mean he's such a terrible, horrible, cantakerous, demanding little man and thus I am only now getting started on dresses that should have been done last week.

Thank God Pinocchio is just a story. I like my nose just the length it is, thank you very much.

As I was saying, I cut out pudding's outfit this morning and after more gardening, I fired up the old netflix, put on some Doctor Zhivago and started cutting the pinkleminkle's 1950's vintage dress. After cutting out the bodice overlay from a silk organza I bought on sale from Martha Pullen, I realized I have to sew the pintucks into this thing in order to get the proper pattern for the main fabric. I did so and now I'm presented with a problem.

Which bodice look do I go for?

The first is three columns of embroidered ribbon. I know it looks like Irish green shamrocks here but I promise they are pretty turquoise and aqua flowers.



#1




The  next one are three columns of lace beading insertion threaded with robin's egg blue ribbon. Just pretend it looks that color and not the sky blue it appears to be here.




#2




Then, two rows of the ribbon and lace on either side with insertion lace down the center.




#3



As above but switched.




#4



And finally, the simplest option, three columns of lace insertion.

#5

 I'm kind of partial to number four. What say you?

Lookie, Lookie!

My friend Elizabeth decided that little skunk/raccoon/squirrel looks like an Emma and thus, this is the Emma dress that I hurriedly finished this morning. I'd forgotten all about Daylight Savings Time otherwise, this dress would have been sitting under my presser foot still and I would have made it to church for Sunday school.

The pattern is vintage Simplicity 7466, purchased from The Quilted Heart over at Etsy. It's sewn from cream Imperial Batiste purchased from another etsy seller whose shop seems to be inactive. There was supposed to be a pretty embroidered collar with lace trim but it would have hidden Emma's sweet face. I'm saving it for another project I guess, maybe a little blouse? I trimmed it with brown and pink piping leftover from another project. Since piping is made from bias tape, I took apart some of it and used it to bind the armhole openings.

We won't discuss all the mistakes I made. Suffice to say, once all my Easter sewing is completed, I'll be taking apart at least the back bodice pieces and redoing this properly. But at least the smocking looks good, for a first attempt anyway.

Overall, I do like how this turned out and I think it will look faboo once I've fixed it, including lowing the collar as my kid has informed me that the neckline is choking her out.

Good! It's authentically vintage now since poor little girls in the 50's had to sit in church wearing uncomfortable dresses and praying for the sermon to end so they could get out of it.

Next up, St Patty's outfits!