Pleated Marble Dress

Another wedding season means more dresses! I was determined to sew at least one new dress this year, especially since I had such success with my first party dress.

I still feel most confident sewing with cotton, so I made a quick trip to the workroom and picked up a beautiful pale sage marbled print by Princess Mirah Batiks.

I was inspired by this beautiful pleated strapless dress by BCBG and decided to modify the Mary Adams pattern to have a fitted pleated dress.

Modifying dress patterns is hard! There's a lot of math to get everything to fit just right. I knew I wanted to create the pleated detail, add pockets, and even try to mimic the peekaboo lining.

I think I was quite successful in achieving all three details. The difficulty with a cotton dress is that it tends to wrinkle, and doesn't fall or drape as nicely as a more silky fabric.  I think I should have made the lining out of a different fabric so it didn't stick to the cotton dress as much.

In the end, dress number 2 from Mary Adam's dress book was still great.  It's such a great pattern that can be used over and over with slight modifications (but not without a little headache)!

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The Party Dress Book

Over the past three years, we've attended 19 weddings. (Probably over 25 if you count the year before that, but my memory doesn't go that far.) What can I say? I love weddings, and if I can make it, I'm there!

The difficult part about attending so many weddings is figuring out my attire. It's an opportunity to get beautiful and buy a fancy new dress, but since it's completely illogical to buy a new dress for every occasion, I am faced with a complex riddle to figure out the minimum number of dresses I will allow myself to buy so that (almost) no one will see me wear a dress twice.

A woman's life is tough. Dustin just changes out his tie or his dress shirt. The permutations are almost endless.

For this year's office-Christmas-Gala, I promised myself that I would not buy another dress. Surely, I would figure something out with my wardrobe of dresses, right? No. But a promise is a promise. So instead of buying a new dress, I made one!!!

I didn't know I had it in me! (Which is why I had told very few people about this project in the likely event that I had to abandon ship...)

The secret to my success? Mary Adams' new book: The Party Dress Book, how to sew the best dress in the room. The book is incredible. It not only had full size patterns, detailed instructions on fitting, and tips and techniques, but the majority of the book was page after page of inspiration in colours, details, shapes, and fabric. There are sewing instructions for three types of dresses, but most of the dresses in the book are based on the same silhouette.

As I was pressed for time (and lack the skill to sew with silk) I opted to sew a cotton dress using a piecing technique with French seams.

One of the first images in this book is Mary's "Bo Peep" dress. The vertical piecing in the skirt was just so cute!

I chose some beautiful charcoal cotton fabric from the workroom and decided to "fancy up" the dress with some plum organza.

And without further ado, I unveil to you my plum party dress!

(And since none of Dustin's friends from U of T attended the Christmas Gala, I can wear this dress to our last wedding of the 2010 season on New Year's Eve! Hooray!)

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Cleaning Out my Closet

Last weekend, it was finally time for cleaning out my closet. But unlike Eminem, I was cleaning out my literal closet full of clothes without rapping to da beat. Don't get me wrong: if I could, I would -- but my rap skills are dismal.

Since the Spring opening of the breath-takingly fabulous Anthropologie store, I had given my closet a well deserved boost of "bohemian chic." Consequently, I caused a not-so-deserved crater in my bank account.

My Fall/Winter wardrobe needed to be better thought out. Before heading out to the shops for random "isn't this fabulous?" shopping, I needed to give it a thorough clean and assess my needs for the upcoming cold weather.

In the process, I was able to dig up a few cute things to share with you. (Yes, what an incredibly long segue to sharing these items...)

My maternal grandmother used to hand-make all sorts of things for us while growing up. Sweaters, hats, bibs (to name a few,) and cute little baby shoes. The pack-rat in me has kept these baby shoes in my closet where they will remain forever -- or until I have a baby girl: Dustin thinks they're too girly for a boy. Look at that craftsmanship! Grandmothers are amazing.

From me

From me

The next item up for bid (not really, but I love The Price is Right) is a pair of handmade mittens that transform into gloves. We bought these in England, at the market in Tavistock. I was 8. The lady was old. The mittens were fabulous. Old ladies make the best stuff.

From me

From me

And finally, I would like to share with you one of my favourite pictures of Dustin. The fact that it's on a button makes it even better. I get to make my "Isn't he cute as a button?!" joke forever and ever.

From me

At the end of the day, I saved a handful of valuable keepsakes, reorganized a closet of fall and winter essentials, and donated one very large garbage bag full of clothes to Goodwill. My mother has always reminded me to put old clothes aside for her first before giving it to charity. But like Eminem said "Sorry mama. I never meant to hurt you. I never meant to make you cry, but [last weekend I was] cleaning out my closet."

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She Bangs!

From me

I *heart* bangs. They're such a great way to make you look and feel like a whole new person.

I've been told that my face shape and stick straight hair don't really go well with bangs, but I keep giving it a try. Perhaps because so many others look so fabulous with bangs.

See exhibit A: Anne Hathaway. (Picture by George Pimentel.)

Exhibit B: Zooey Deschanel. (Picture from cbc.ca)

Exhibit C: Anna Ellison from Charm City Cakes

Since my bob has completely grown out, it was time to try the bangs again. Yes, the stick straight hair, small eyes, and small forehead are not ideal for the Anne-Hathaway-bangs, but I will always *heart* bangs, even when they're only semi-fabulous on me. And I didn't cut my hair "boy short," so Dustin is elated.

From me

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