First of all look at these shoes my daughter gave me because they were too big for her. (Shortest woman in my family but biggest feet!) Well, they fit my left foot just fine but the right one is just too big. *Sniff and sob*...... I made these adorable little bows for them and wore them to the optometrist the other day with dark blue slacks and a bright red blazer and did I turn heads!! I am not a fashion plate by ANY stretch of the imagination but I certain was colorful that day especially with a PINK shirt underneath the red blazer. But I think I'm going to have to sell these shoes on ebay!!! I've tried to find them in a smaller size so I could have one fit the right foot properly but no luck. I think I looked like a duck walking in to the optometrist's office in them but I got the royal treatment, I tell ya!! It pays to go "dressed" a bit even here in Idaho! *Smile*.......
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~*~Day #1
I love this fabric. It's silky polyester in a true bright red with white polka dots. I needed 5 3/8 yards to make this simple A-line dress. I have that much.........but it's in 2 pieces. I'm going to have to get creative with it. So today I've pulled the cutting table into the living room (I still can't extend it in the craft/sewing room) and trying to figure out how I can cut it. It might be in there all day! Hubs will take me out to dinner tonight for sure as .................well, just because I'm telling him to actually! This is really taking a lot of thinking and creativity. Maybe I'll cut it off a bit higher above the knee, find another silky polyester in coordinating fabric and sew it on the bottom. I've been thinking of taking a ribbon and sewing it down the middle on a piece of fabric while twisting it as I go.
Then I found this at a fabric store and thought of using this as a ruffle around the bottom. But..........
Then things went awry and the "FUN" began! *Sigh*........
I've had this pattern for many years and it's a simple A-line dress. You can sash it if you want. Anyway, having made it several times I thought I'd just breeze through it with the modifications I mentioned above. When I got through cutting it out of those 2 pieces of fabric I had a lot left over and couldn't figure out why.
I put it aside for a day and then picked it up this morning (saturday) and began sewing. I knew I was in trouble when the 2 front pieces didn't match. I had inadvertently cut all four panels out the wrong way. No need to explain here just believe me when I say I messed it up royally! So what to do???? I made half of the dress with the right side out and the other side with the wrong side out. If you think this is easy to understand or even explain to you, I don't even wanna hear it, chicks. Try sewing all the pieces together and realizing you're using BOTH sides and......well, just trust me, it ain't easy!
Now, I hate to throw away fabric and a friend suggested making something for a child to wear and sell it on ebay to recoup my money. Nope, I love that fabric and that is all I could find. I called around to every fabric store in this area and beyond. I tried finding it on line. I went to a popular seller on ebay and websites looking for that fabric. None to be found.
Day #2
I also realized that if I used the "ribbon embroidery" fabric above it might look too weird. As if!! I had already started ripping the leftover fabric into strips because there simply wasn't enough to cut out any more dress panels. So I made a ruffle. So the right side in the pictures below (my left as I have the dress on) is the "wrong" side of the fabric and the other side is the "right" side of the fabric. Photos below are during construction.
The finished dress. I plan on wearing it to church on sunday. I'm sure I'll get stares, but I shall hold my head up high and just tell them it's a "blogging experience" or better yet a "blogging experiment"!! Trust me, I did NOT do this for a blog post but you know me well enough now that there would definitely be a blog post about this fiasco.
With the ruffle, which I like actually, I now look like a FLAMENCO COURT JESTER! I have no shame, I tell ya. Hold me back here!!! *Sigh*
