A Walking Advertisement
21 April 2008, 17:19I was out all day Saturday hiking near Guildford with our monthly walking group, but a friend staying at ours said it snowed back in London. Ugh. It’s still too cold to wear either the silk blouse or the ikea skirt apart from their hurried photoshoots, so of course I’m sewing practical winter clothes to suit the weather…
Ha! Gotcha! No, I’m sewing a sleeveless, cotton halter-top dress, out of this vintage Porsche duvet I bought on eBay:
I left a friend’s birthday drinks early on Sunday so I could have some downtime in the evening (if I’m away all weekend, I just don’t feel like I’ve had a weekend at all and I get cranky), and I made great progress on the dress, finishing the bodice:
First reaction: Wow, I’m glad I took my time with the fabric placement! Second reaction: Wow, Susan (my dress form) looks stacked! This may turn out to be the Wonderbra of dresses…
It’s completely lined (with a plain white cotton bedsheet!), so I actually won’t need to wear a bra at all, which is great considering the open back, and I added lots of boning in the front midriff to match the boning in the back. I’ve just got to add the skirt pieces, the back zipper, and hem, but it may take a few evenings and mornings of accumulated sewing time to get that far. And I’m running out of hope that I’ll ever get to wear this before August at this rate! If you’ve got warm weather where you are, could you please send some our way? I should start a warmth fundraising appeal, as we Londoners are definitely in a warmth drought, situation critical!
Tags: boning, dress, recycled, simplicity, vintage
WOW!!!!! It’s not even finished and I already love what you’ve done! You are going to look so great in this – I can’t wait to see how the rest of this dress turns out.
— stacysews Apr 21, 08:16 PM #
Melissa, I love it — that is so cute. You’ll have to throw a summer party if nothing else pops up for you, because that dress will need to be seen!
— Krista Apr 22, 12:14 AM #
Maybe your next project should be a flesh colored body suit to wear under your summer creations!
— Mom Apr 22, 01:59 AM #
I love that you named your dress form! My friend in high school named her car Yvette. I am curious, though, as to why “Susan,” exactly.
— Sara Apr 22, 05:54 AM #
Are you doing the bows, jacket and white gloves from the pattern picture too : )?
— JenL Apr 22, 07:52 AM #
Sara – I’m not exactly sure why Susan, either! I think maybe her perfect hourglass retro shape somehow made me think of 1950s children’s books or something. But as soon as I saw her, I instantly knew her name was Susan. Strange, but naming the dressform was way more straightforward than naming the cat!
JenL – I’m not really a bow person so I’m leaving off the belt (also, it’s a bit weird that the belt doesn’t have any loops and isn’t designed to sit at the smallest part of your waist, so I think it’d be a fuss anyway). That, and it’d probably interfere with the Porsche lettering… I’m not making the jacket for the aforementioned bow reasons, and also because it doesn’t look like it’d add that much warmth!
But I’m happy to report that I do have short white gloves, so all is not lost!
— melissa Apr 22, 12:27 PM #
My, oh, my — that’s product placement for you! I love this dress already!
— Noile Apr 23, 02:06 AM #