It’s not easy being green…
Fabrics: Shamrock linen, poly lining & wool felt Pattern: Vogue 8280
Year: 2007 (!?!)
Notions: Scrap of interfacing, 1 zipper, 1 hat frame from stash
Time to complete: 3 hours
First worn: For this photo
Wear again? To work this Friday : )
Total Cost: Dress $15.42, Hat $5.11
I was all set to go for the Pantone challenge when the theme was changed, even had one of my items almost done! Rummaging through my “green” storage bin I discovered I had almost nothing useful. There was a very interesting piece of ombre organza in greens with a slight yellow edge on one side and heading to the blues on the other. It would make a stunning, yet slightly shiny and Easter-y dress and matching jacket but needed lining.
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One trip to the fabric store later and I came home with the green linen you now see. There was NO fabric suitable for lining my organza so all that ombre loveliness will just have to wait : ) While searching for fabric I kept thinking about the “Mad Men” challenge coming up and Joan Holloway popped into my brain and refused to leave. I knew I had this pattern at home, perfect for a Joan wiggle dress, so I had my fabric cut and hustled home. I was SO excited to make this so imagine my horror to find out the sales clerk cut the WRONG amount of fabric – 1 1/2 yards instead of the 1 3/4 that I asked for!
Harrumph. Fine, make the sleeves shorter, it’ll work out. Then I went to cut the lining, which was also consistently cut wrong and I didn’t have enough to line the sleeves, just the dress. Oh well, at least I don’t have to worry about a slip! The good news is the linen is sturdy enough that sleeve lining wasn’t an issue. The bad news is the dress is linen with all its inherent linen qualities : )
Don’t get me wrong, I love how linen feels but today I wish I’d thought about the photography process just a bit more. In the future I’ll either take the pics at home or somewhere we can walk to, or have my daughter drive and lay down in the back seat : ) I also need to find a reflective surface in which to check my overall look (pull down the top after climbing up the embankment, fix the belt, rearrange the girls properly…). But hey, this is real life, not “The Real Housewives of Walnut Creek” and I don’t have hair, makeup and stylists to help out, just my daughter. I think we did just fine considering we lost an hour and were each having a poop-y weekend for entirely different reasons. We channeled Joan with the hair as best we could and I wore it all day like this!
My hair : )
The pattern was a breeze to make, I HIGHLY recommend it. Easy to line although they don’t have you interface the neckline which I strongly recommend doing. My last adventure with this dress came when I decided it needed a belt and possibly a hat. I dragged my mother to Stone Mountain Daughter in Berkeley where I discovered she had never been! She was like a kid in a candy store, feeling all the fabrics. She finally looked around and said “I see why you like it, it IS a real fabric store!”. While she was delighting in the fabric goodness I managed to find my belting AND wool felt that EXACTLY matched my linen! Again, so excited, and when I got home I immediately made the hat using an old pillbox frame that has been kicking around in the garage for 6, yes six, years. Took a whole 45 minutes and makes me ridiculously happy. Went to get the belting out of the bag and…they forgot to put it IN the bag! Just for today I wrapped a piece of the linen around an existing belt but seriously…
Back to Neiman Marcus we went to take advantage of the GREEN windows this time. As we walked down the street we could see 60′s-style furniture in a shoe department, and my daughter said wistfully “I wonder if they’d let us take pictures in there?”
Speaking of shoes, I’d just like to point out the vintage friends on my feet. For all you who appreciate beautiful vintage things I shoved my size 8 1/2 feet into size 7′s because they were the right color and style : ) The jewelry is vintage and the bag is, I think, alligator.
Shoes and bag
The key element to this outfit? Spanx. Buy some, feel the love : ) Now that I’ve warmed up with this Joan dress I can’t WAIT for next week!
