netflix is a real hurdle

Despite the new distractions of a two-week free trial, I managed to pull off the citrus skirt in record time and finished the floral dress to boot, photos of course promised in the near future. There's an odd dissonance between the two pieces - they have a nearly identical square-hipped tulip shape, which I absolutely love in the dress but am decidedly less enthusiastic about in the skirt. It may be that the fabric hangs a bit differently, but overall I think it's mostly a matter of proportion - the width of the hips is offset in the dress by the overall length of the garment, so the wide bottom/tiny waist thing works well, but in the skirt all that volume combined with the bright print just ends up looking... wide. And bottom-heavy. I do like the overall idea of the skirt still, so I think I'll try to just take out the pockets and tone down the hips a bit and see how that works out.

The dress is probably the best work I've done to date - the fit is 95% perfect. The only weirdness stems from some of the topstitching I did at the top of the bodice, it seems like everything got just a little stretched out where the top edge hits the zipper, which results in a little bit of gapping. It's not too noticeable overall, but it's enough to give me some pause. I'm still debating when to debut it - I'm not sure if tonight's excursion to the only dive bar in town is the most opportune time for a zip-front strapless dress with boob-flashing potential.... or maybe it's just the fast track to free pitchers.

Inspa

I'm completely entranced by the watercolor fabric on these shorts by Tsumori Chisato - the blurring is so delicate, and orange/white is one of my absolute favorite color combinations. I'd like to start experimenting with manipulating fabrics more with dyes and maybe even bleach. I might have to do some sort of homage to these checked beauties too.

Getting all tarted up

I swear, not every post title will be a pun! Just most of them.

This citrusy skirt is progressing rapidly - my Thursday deadline may not be totally unreasonable after all. If it turns out well I'll probably do another in a more seasonally versatile print - I was hoping to use this great Marrimekko fabric I bought in Finland, but I don't have nearly enough to do something so dramatically wide-hipped. If only the Emily of 2005 had more foresight! I may still see if I can scale back the fabric demands of the pattern to make it work, otherwise I'll probably just do a slimmer pencil silhouette with it.

My poor floral dress is still not done, it's been pushed aside in favor of prioritizing the citrus. I'm hoping to wear it for a party Sunday though, so it will get its day soon enough. It's tough to pull myself away from my machine every morning to go to work, but maybe I wouldn't be so motivated to make things if my free time weren't so limited. As it is I spend a good deal of my time at work clandestinely sketching out pattern construction issues and working out assembly problems.

My apologies for the bizarre formatting of these last few posts - I'm doing most of my posting via email via my phone, so there's a certain degree of inevitable wonkiness built into that twice-removed system.

Skirting the issue.

Trying to work out the mechanics of a concealed zipper. What was originally going to be a simple play on the pattern I made for my flowered dress has (naturally) evolved into something much more
ambitious. Which I'm hoping to finish in time for a dinner party Thursday night. Ambitious indeed.
Meanwhile, my flowered dress languishes in need of a hem - hopefully I'll wrap that up tonight while laundering skirt fabric.

The barest hint of a heartbeat...

This blog idea was nearly scuttled by the minor setback of a missing camera cable, but I'm willing to trade lower (like, way lower) quality photos for more frequent updates. The arrival of summer has accelerated a few ideas into projects, and hopefully I'll be able to
keep that momentum up.
The effort-du-jour is a thrift-store-curtain-turned-party-dress, the pattern for which has occupied the better part of the last two weeks, and which I now just have to figure out how to gem properly. Tulip
skirts and bustier tops are a real lesson in applied geometry... Once this one is finished, I'll either work on a striped version or finish the cramazing half-finished cage dress that preceded it....