Saturday, September 27, 2014

Project Reunion

Droject Dirndl is done!  My creations are winging their way to Munich as we speak, and I'll be posting photos and pattern reviews soon-ish (I hope).  I've already got a lot of skating costume orders, but mostly for practice costumes at this point, so it isn't as intense as it gets during summer.  And after a few non-skating projects I'm in a much better head space to deal with it, so I'm going to say that come October my little sweatshop will be up and running again.  However, I think one of my next several projects is definitely going to have to be for me, as I've got a semi-special occasion coming up relatively soon.

I have to say, I've never been one to get antsy about people knowing my age, but it is a bit surreal making plans for the 10 year high school reunion.  I know, I know.  High school - why would we want to go back, right?  Well, sometimes you have awesome friends, who somehow end up on the planning committee, which means you don't have to debate if you are going to go, only what you are going to wear when you actually do.  At this point I've settled on four designs I'm considering making for the event:

M6602 - A McCall's Fashion Star sheath dress.
I wasn't too keen on this dress when it came out,
but now I'm loving the low back and simple design.
I've got a wild ikat cotton print and black contrast fabric picked out.
This one will definitely be bright.  Dealing with internal structure could be interesting too.

NL6261 - I want the blue lace design, obviously.
I've got several laces that could work - two teal, one blue -
and contrasting or complimentary lining fabrics as well.

NL6243 - The dress with the sheer top.  I've got an indigo cotton sateen,
with plans of using a black lace overlay, or some fancy trims.  This
would be the most understated dress of the bunch, but elegant, I think.
I also might end up using a different skirt pattern, for a bit more flare.

BE-2-2014-4F.  The recent Burda Easy cutout dress.
Just because it is on my brain at the moment.
And it might not take as much effort to fit as some of the others.
Also might not be quite as fancy as I would like to dress for this particular occasion.
So, anyway, the event is in a little over a month, so I've got time, but I also want to get constructing sooner rather than later.  Right now I'm leaning towards M6602 and NL6243, probably for no reason other than I'm having too much fun sewing cotton lately.  And I'm itching to sew on these gorgeous colors I've got in the stash.  Well, that and I think they would be most suitable for the occasion.  As a bonus - if I mix patterns on the New Look design I can enter the Pattern Review Frankenpattern contest, so, there's that.  I'm considering trying to make at least two of these so I can have an option on the day.  Or, alternatively, I might be needing to make some sort of outerwear to go with the dress.  It will be November, so a coat could be nice.  But, priorities - dress first, coat later.  If you've got any thoughts, advice, or suggestions feel free to leave a note in the comments section!

5 comments:

  1. I love having an occasion to make a dress for. All of these patterns would work, though personally I would be worried about the fit on the McCalls one, it just looks like the shoulder straps would keep falling off, but you have lots of skating dress experience so I am sure you can make it stay on!

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    1. Yeah, I definitely have to muslin any/all of these before I make them, because I have tons of fit issues. So if the muslin is a total bust I would probably jump ship and go to a different pattern. I have a BWOF dress in mind that is similar, with wider shoulders and a less dramatic back. I could always frankenpattern the McCall's details onto the other dress if this one turns out to be an epic bust.

      Though, to be totally honest, I'm really leaning towards the New Look design right now, mostly because I found some awesome trim that I'm excited to use. We'll see how I'm feeling when it gets time to trace patterns.

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  2. I love the Burda dress. I think it would suits you a lot, but most love the neck styling.

    I am deeply impressed you finished uni & a PhD in under 10 years AND skate and sew!

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    1. I'm tempted to make the Burda dress for another event I have coming up in November - only a few weeks after the reunion. I had planned a different dress for that event, but I think if I'm doing the reunion dress I won't have time to fit and make my other idea, so you might be seeing that one sooner rather than later too!

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  3. i LOVE the fashion star dress, with the demure front and that great, sexy back - best of both worlds! with the right structure - boning, cups, etc - it would be really easy to wear AND super-fun to make.

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