The Facts Fabric: Purple wool from Stone Mountain & Daughter
Pattern: Decades of Style 5007
Notions: Interfacing, zipper, 2 buttons, all from stash
Year: 1950′s inspired
Time to complete: 4 hours
First worn: December 2012
Wear again? Maybe, if and when I fix it

Total Cost: $53.15

Not long ago Stone Mountain sent out an email with a 25% off coupon in it. Since Joann’s regularly puts 40% & 50% off coupons in their mailers that may not seem like much but that is a GREAT deal for Stone Mountain! I was SO EXCITED when I headed out to shop and I had the beginnings of an idea, to make a dress to go with the fabulous vintage purple shoes I had worn with my Autumn outfit. I put a shoe in a bag to match fabric to and set out. Did I get to the store with the shoe? I did not. Did I find some fabric that would go with them? Yes I did. AND I found this fabulous pattern, newly released from Decades of Style that was included in the 25% off!! What would have been quite an expensive outfit became affordable.

I wanted to do something to honor my Grandmother, as I had done with the Mother’s Day challenge. Her favorite color was purple and somewhere I have a picture of her in the most amazing purple chiffon outfit with matching shoes so this was “supposed” to be my modern version of that outfit.

The week started out with a flooded garage (from that series of 4 storms in 4 days that gave us the great pictures last week) and I took the day off work to pull everything out, dry things off and re-pack/organize/toss. Wednesday one of the chickens was killed by a mid-afternoon raccoon attack and by Thursday I thought I was coming down with the cold du jour so I crawled onto the couch with 2 dogs and a cat and hibernated.

I didn’t start the dress until Friday when I cut out a muslin of the top. I was a little nervous how those pleated bodice panels worked but I followed the directions carefully and all went well. I figured I’d have all day Saturday to sew and wasn’t worried. I should have worried : )

Here’s what I like about the pattern:

~Easy to follow directions,

~Few pattern pieces.

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Things I didn’t like:

~Side zipper – yes, it’s period but I don’t like them so I cut the back bodice with a center back seam rather than on the fold.

~Those skirt insets – yes, they’re half of the design elements but I just couldn’t get them to work quite right on me. I have a feeling if I either line the entire skirt with a lining fabric with some stretch everything will stay where it’s supposed to be. Either that or back the insets with some power mesh but the wool is so nice I’d really like to line it. It looks great on the mannequin but when I went to do photos I managed to pop the buttons off because I had done such a fabulous job sewing them on the begin with : )

~The neck edge facing – woke up at 4 am on Sunday trying to solve the problem of the bubbling. Figured it had to do with one side being sewn from the center back down while the other side was sewn from the center front up. That and the feed dogs of my machine need some adjusting. Did I get up at 5 am to fix it? I did not. So it’s uneven and icky. I’m over it.

This dress REALLY needs a couple things – lining and a professional press job. I was so discouraged by the time I was ready to hem it that I didn’t even want to do THAT! I forced myself to try it on (again), cut 2″ off the skirt and then put a 2 1/4″ hem in it. I pulled out my grandmothers high school graduation pin:

We found it in the corner of my grandfather’s jewelry box when we moved him into an extended care facility many years ago. My mother is sure that if he’d known about it he would have tossed it. They divorced in the mid-60′s and it was NOT amicable. We have so few things of hers that I cherish this.

I went to look for the shoes and found…one. Then I went to get a pair of earrings that would go with the pin and found…one. I couldn’t find any of my usual photographers home so was setting up to take pics with the automatic timer feature when Heidi called and was available. I hiked it up to her house with a bag of “ornaments”. My grandmother made those too : )

By the time I got to this point, with one shoe, popped button and pouffy skirt details I was SO OVER this dress that Heidi and I joked about my bad attitude. You want to see someone with some REAL style?

Miss Isabella is rockin’ the leopard pants, pink & black plaid skirt and butterfly shirt : )

Here’s the one shoe I have:

That little button in the center would go really nicely with the button detail on the pocket when I get them sewn back on and find the mate.

Honestly, this is going into the back of the closet. It has great potential, needs some work but I need to find my sewing patience before I tackle it. It shouldn’t have been *that* hard, I just wasn’t in the best place to deal with it.

To salvage the whole day I did a little photoshop project:

Yeah, I wish : )

Here’s to a MUCH better week next week. I have plans and they include YET ANOTHER fabulous vintage car!!