DC PR Anniversary Weekend: Tour of Arena Stage Costume Shop

For Pattern Review's anniversary weekend, SewDC arranged for Joe Salasovich, Arena Stage's Costume Director, to give us a tour.  What a treat!  Joe was incredibly generous with his time and vast store of knowledge.  We toured not only the costume shop but the entire backstage area, including the craft shop (where dyeing, millinery, and other non-sewing costume work is done), wardrobe storage, hat storage(!!!), the wardrobing room, the hair salon (who knew?), and the scene shop. 




We started in the costume shop, which is full of beautiful dress forms.  This padded out form was incredible!  Seeing that it is possible to make the form fit any size was inspiring to work with what I have (though my problem is the shoulders are too wide on all commercial dress forms and the bust too large).












 Joe shared their process for making costumes.  They often start with vintage garments as inspiration, many of which come from his personal collection.  They study the garment and carefully examine the design lines as well as the construction techniques.





When a design has been decided upon, everything is muslined and sometimes more than once.  If you look carefully at the muslin on the left you can see the safety pins that were used for fitting.  The final coat is on the right.  (Also notice the gorgeous roll of silk on the lower right!)













Once perfect, patterns are traced onto brown paper and hung on hooks for future use and reference.














Here's a panoramic view of the costume shop.  They have a mix of industrial and home machines.  Obscured by the table in the right is the Merrow industrial serger.  Gorgeous!  The boxes are for storage of notions, trims, decorations, and other miscellany like handkerchiefs.

The irons are industrial steam presses, and they use ironing tables rather than ironing boards, with hams and sleeve boards for shaping.  I was quite jealous of the ironing table.



I was amused by the "Hey Girl" memes on one of the cutting tables.  They love Ryan Gosling at Arena Stage...













One of the questions we had for Joe was whether the clothes were made to look good from the stage or up close.  He told us that all the clothes were movie ready.  When we passed this jacket hanging in the hallway, I knew he was telling the truth.  That level of plaid matching blows my mind.






















The shop encourages creative solutions.  When they wanted to create sort of rough and worn looking garments with a print, they used rusty nails to imprint a pattern onto the hem of a dress.  Genius!




I would have loved to have spent a couple hours in the hat storage room with a mirror!  There were shelves and shelves of hats arranged by color.  They do some of their millinery in-house; I was drooling at their hat blocks and head forms.






Arena is celebrating Italian Culture this year and when we visited was in the process of setting up an exhibit of Italian couture (these enticing shipping crates were in the freight elevator).










It was a wonderful tour.  Inevitably for someone who sews, I worked in the costume shop at my college.  It was actually a great shop and the theater program at my tiny college is surprisingly professional, but this was definitely a whole new level.  Thanks so much to SewDC for organizing and Joe for the tour and the group photo!

All photos are here.

DC Area Meetup and Fabric Swap Confessional

On Saturday, Nikki acted once again as our fearless leader and organized a DC area sewing meetup!  I love these events.  It's great to be able to bring projects you're working on and get opinions, to chat about sewing, and to find new homes for fabric and patterns that need to get out of stash.










We had an awesome turnout, and took over the whole front section of the restaurant (it was empty so they didn't mind).


















The front section was convenient because there is a long bench with a ledge behind it that we used for spreading out our swapping goodies.  And there were some goodies!  One woman's excess stash is definitely another woman's treasure.















I once again failed miserably in reducing my stash by bringing swap fabrics to the meetup.  But come on, how could I resist any of these?

I wore a new dress (you can see a sneak peek in the second photo) and had a great photo shoot.  More to come on that...

All photos of the meetup are here.

DC Area Sewing Meetup: Wish You Were Here!

It is so fun to talk about sewing in real life!

It had been a while since we last had a DC-area sewing meetup, so Nikki took the initiative to organize through the message board at Pattern Review (for some reason it literally did not occur to me to announce it on my blog until I left the house and was biking toward the restaurant).  We met at the Vapiano in Chinatown, which is convenient to all five metro lines.  It turned out to be a great place for a meetup.  Everyone orders their food separately at the counter, but the dining experience is not fast food.  We were able to take over a big corner of the restaurant with plenty of space to chat and to swap for a couple of hours.














People came from near and far--I think Baltimore was our furthest trekker. I think I was closest. The restaurant is only a little over a mile from my house (lucky me!).

Everyone was decked out in their fanciest sewn duds.














We circulated around getting to know one another and reconnecting, talking through sewing puzzles.
















DD brought a recent project, the Vogue 8881 high-low hem tee.  Everyone had fun admiring her excellent coverstitched hem, and we all agreed that we now want this pattern.














First things first, we had to eat.  You can see how much we enjoyed the food here.































Once we had our sustenance, it was time to get to swapping.  We collectively brought a truly huge volume of fabric and patterns.  Everyone went home happy (especially those of us who managed to get rid of slightly more than we took...very slightly).







In addition to fabric and patterns, a few people brought sewing books.  Sewandwrite graciously arranged to take our excess home to donate to an organization.  She braved the meetup despite a recent ankle injury.

I apologize, I don't know everyone's PR/Internet name.  Please let me know if you want to be tagged!

All photos are here.



Here's what followed me home.  The cotton knit is a Marcy Tilton, and it just happens to have "grayed jade," one of this year's Pantone colors, in it.  Next is a wonderfully soft cotton print in coral.  I am hoping to eke out Butterick 5490.  The wool herringbone was forced upon me by Nikki, who pointed out that I couldn't possibly resist a wonderful work-appropriate fabric for a skirt.  And finally, the rayon burnout was just too fun to leave behind.  Clio has recently been contemplating the possibilities of sheer, and, well, I'm copying her.

Pattern Review Meetup DC

To celebrate the anniversary of PatternReview's founding, sewing meetups were held around the world last Saturday. We were lucky enough to have Nikki to organize us in DC, and we had a wonderful day together. While I got photos of some of our stops, I totally spaced on getting pictures of actual people so I've borrowed this one from SewandWrite.


We started our morning at The Textile Museum, a gem of a place near DuPont Circle. I admit that I don't come here as often as I should because I am spoiled by all the free museums available, but the Textile Museum asks only $8 as a donation and the exhibits are always top notch. The museum was very welcoming to us--they offered us coffee and tea and let us congregate in a conference room until everyone arrived.

The current exhibit on the ground floor focuses on the weaving and embroidery of central Africa, roughly in what is now the Congo. The textiles are created with threads processed from palm frond, which are fairly short. This photo shows examples of short pile embroidery, essentially tiny rug hooking. The geometric patterns, though actually flat, give an amazing impression of depth and dimensionality. These cloths, created by female relatives, were amassed by men as status symbols, and no practical use was given for them. They were generally buried with their owners.

The upstairs exhibit is on textile recycling. While I think we generally tend to think of patchwork quilting as an American art form, it is practiced the world over as a practical way to use up scraps of fabric and to repurpose worn-out textiles. The pieces on display in the museum show astounding intricacy and patience in both the tiny scraps used and in the embroidery dressing up the pieces.

Of course we had to make a stop in the gift shop on the way out! The Textile Museum has a wonderful gift shop with items ranging from affordable to aspirational. In addition to its regular stock, the offerings are coordinated with the exhibits on display, and several status cloths--of the quality shown in the museum's exhibit--are available for purchase right now. The price for these works of art is quite reasonable, in the $125 range. However, I am not in the market for art at the moment and contented myself with an adorable felted clutch made in Nepal for only $18. If you're looking for tasteful and imaginative gift options I recommend a visit (they have an online store as well).

We left the museum and headed off to lunch at Bistrot du Coin just down the street, where we enjoyed socializing, a tasty meal, and passing around our goodies for trade. Nikki also held a drawing for door prizes, and I won the PR 1000 Tips and Tricks book!

We had planned a fabric swap to be part of the event, which turned out to be quite fortuitous for me. The night before I figured I ought to go through my fabric shelves and find a few pieces to throw in the pile. Well, that morphed into me going through my entire fabric stash and considerably culling it down--to the tune of three garbage bags' worth of fabric off the shelf. I had done a big cull earlier in the year but had left some things on the understanding I'd need to sew them up reasonably soon to justify keeping them. I didn't and now they're gone!

Well, not actually gone, but moved from the sewing room the living room to await listing on Freecycle. DC area residents: if you want first dibs, just let me know. The conditions are the same as Freecycle: 1) you come pick it up, and 2) you gotta take the whole lot sight unseen.

Anyway, I didn't find takers for all the fabrics I brought to the swap, but about half of them were claimed and I felt ok claiming a few pieces on my own. The red print on the left is a Marc Jacobs cotton from Fabric.com (the sticker was still on it). Perfect for a crisp summer sheath! In the middle is a very lightweight fine cotton batiste or lawn in an aqua color. It will be perfect for lining a summer dress. The fabric on the right is a crazy stretch mesh with sparklies. It would make a very festive tank top for holiday parties.

Did the thought of those three garbage bags give me pause in buying more fabric to fill the shelves back up (and let's be clear, they are still full)? Erm, I plead the Fifth. All I know is that Exquisite Fabrics was having a moving sale, as that creepy mall in Georgetown is to be renovated, apparently. Almost everything is 50% off, with a few exceptions at 30% off. Although I have purchased various buttons, zippers, thread, and so on at Exquisite, I had never actually bought any fabric from them. I don't share much taste with the buyer, apparently. However, at 50% off I found two splurge fabrics.

The first is a bright pink wool crepe. I love my hot pink corset waist pencil skirt, but it is not bikeable. I need a substitute that I can bike in, and this is a very similar color. I love bright colors!

The second is my big splurge, a piece of Fortuny pleated fabric (not sure the content, but I doubt it's silk). The owner of Exquisite said it came from the warehouse of Mary McFadden. Coincidentally, the National Museum of Women in the Arts had an exhibit on Mary McFadden two years ago that I visited. I am going to a wedding on New Year's Eve and this fabric will be perfect, though I don't have enough to make the dress I envision in my head. :-/ I don't really want to use a contrast fabric but am cooking up some ideas.

What a lovely day we had, including fancy cake enjoyed in DuPont Circle! Thank you to Nikki for organizing, and it was so fun to meet new people. We were all pleased to get together and have plans for future events...

You can see all my photos here.

PR Weekend Montreal 2010

I was thrilled to get to Montreal and do some sightseeing, but the impetus for my visit was PR Weekend Montreal 2010! It was such a great location for PR Weekend. It is beautiful and easily navigable by public transportation, including the fabric shopping. Anne-Marie arranged for everything to take place very conveniently at the Universite de Montreal and for us to stay in the dorms there so it was easy to attend all the events (although my inability to read maps did stymie me occasionally). It was completely fabulous and I'm so glad I got the chance to go. The organizers (Anne-Marie, Connie, Kay, and Claire) did an amazing job and it was so fun to meet so many new people and see old friends again.



We started off on Friday with lectures by Kathryn Brenne and Jeanne and Emilie of Jalie. Kathryn gave a great demonstration of how to get a complete set of accurate measurements. Cidell and I did this for each other a couple of years ago but I think it may be time to do it again...

Jeanne and Emilie were fantastic! Jeanne demonstrated how to make three or four Jalie projects (I can't even remember how many--it was a blur, she worked so fast). Seeing things happening in person is soooooo helpful. And she certainly made it look easy! I really appreciate all the thought they put into their designs; lately I am developing a pet peeve about the useless notches used by the Big 4. They put in meaningless notches and then all the actual match points are circles and squares and dots. Why not ditch the meaningless notches and replace the circles, squares, and dots with useful notches???? They were a hoot, with Jeanne speaking in French and Emilie translating for her. I bought the criss-cross top, my first Jalie pattern, mostly because adorably pregnant Emilie looked so adorable in it.



Then we all transformed ourselves for the cocktail party! Everyone looked fantastic and we did a little fashion show. It was better than a regular fashion show because everyone talked a little bit about their project, so you got the story as well as the garment. The food was beautiful (and the lemon curd dessert was to die for) and we all had a fantastic time. But we had to head to bed early because the next day was...shopping day!

We had a choice of starting at St. Hubert, the Fabric Row of Montreal, or first heading to Suzie Spandex and a few other warehouse-type stores further out of the city. I went first to Suzie Spandex, and then took the metro to St. Hubert to meet the rest of the group at Madeleine Soie et Laine and from there to wander St. Hubert.

Since I had just bought gallons of fabric at PR Weekend Philly and online I was luckily not in much of a fabric shopping mood. Seriously, I really need to learn how to cultivate this feeling because I felt good about not buying too much. In fact, I bought only one piece! And while I really love the fabric, I bought it mostly just because I wanted a souvenir. This yellow pique has a bit of stretch and will be adorable as a shift. I ended up with nearly four yards. I am trying not to kid myself about the fact that I do NOT make jackets, ever. Coats, yes; jackets, no. But wouldn't it be cute with a matching jacket?

We had another party back at the Universite, this time to show off our acquisitions and swap patterns and fabric. Reneeb4930 had posted on the message board that she volunteers at a thrift shop and they had a bunch of vintage patterns come through and would we be interested in looking at them? Yes please! Well, she brought a huge bag of amazing patterns from the 1940s-60s. They were all gorgeous! She picked out several for me and I was just in heaven.

You can click on the photos to make them larger and see the amazingness! I adore the 40s and early 50s, so it was a no brainer that I'd love those. I usually stay away from the Shapeless Sixties, but I was really drawn to the 60s shift, even though I can't really wear that shape because of my protruding belly and large hips. But I am hoping the empire waist belt will magically deal with those little problems. I hadn't realized we could also bring patterns to swap so unfortunately I didn't bring any. But after the patterns had been looked through for a while there were still plenty left so I picked up two contemporary patterns as well. The Vogue is for the little jacket that I will never make, but is cute, no?

We also did a fabric swap. This is the best thing ever, as far as I'm concerned. We were to bring nice fabrics from our stash that we would never, for whatever reason, actually sew. I brought some pieces that I loved but somehow could never think of anything to make them into. It was so much better than sending them off into the unknown of the thrift store (I would not have been able to let go of them that way) and they were quickly claimed by sewists who will love them. And I ended up with a fantastic haul! In fact, I felt a little buyer's remorse over the yellow floral pique because with the swap fabrics and patterns I have plenty to remember Montreal by! I think the first one I make up will be the batik using two of the vintage patterns.

It seems I have not been able to travel without terrible drama lately--cancelled flights, delayed flights, endless waiting in airports, suitcases in the ether for days and days--but my flight home left on time, landed on time, *and* my suitcase arrived with me. I was (still am!) completely exhausted and so happy!

All PR Weekend related photos (and a selection of my travel photos) are here. All the travel photos are here and you can read about my sightseeing adventures here.

PR Weekend Philly, Day 2: Fabric Frenzy

While on Day 1 of PR Weekend Philly 2010 we were all very civilized and cultured and educated (I went back and added a photo of my embellishment sample), on Day 2 it was time for some shameless commerce. Our first stop was Philadelphia's Fabric Row. I knew I had a long day of impulse purchases ahead of me, so rather than fabric shop I hit up a flea market at a little park down 4th St where I picked up several brooches. I have complained about DC thrift shopping before, and I will note again that there is NOTHING by way of jewelry at any of the thrifts in this area. I have developed a love for funky brooches and was so happy to find some.

Lunch was at Alyan's. The best fries you will ever have in your life, except we had to get them to go because we were almost late for the bus to...

London Textiles! This warehouse is usually wholesale only, but they opened up the store special just for us. There were huge shelves with rolls of fabric by the bolt, but the prices were about the same as or higher than at any bricks and mortar store, and higher than online prices. The real bargains were the remnants: silk and wool were $5/yd, everything else $3/yd, the only catch being that you had to buy the whole piece.

This is the kind of store where you really do want to shop with fifty of your closest friends. When we first arrived, I kind of picked through a couple of the bins but didn't find anything interesting and was totally not enthused. I wandered the bolts for a bit and when I came back people were working the remnant bins and the churning turned up lots of great pieces, none of which I had spotted on my own. I eventually ended up with a huge armload and had to make myself breathe for a minute and pare down.

We really cleaned them out! The picture on the right was taken after the line died down. You can imagine what it was like before! Observe all the stacked up rolls of cut fabric on the right and then imagine that we probably bought at least four times as many remnants as bolt fabrics. I'm surprised the bus managed to chug its way back across the river...and this was before we decimated Jomar!



As you can see, I did pretty well for myself. All this for around $60!!!! I'll talk about my ideas for several of the fabrics in more detail below. The red stretch satin will be for a skirt, using the matte side. I bought some red stretch twill from Kashi in NYC and have made it into a skirt, but it was not an entirely successful project (I chose a style I knew probably wouldn't work for me and it didn't; will review it eventually) so one of my actual shopping goals for the weekend was a red to replace that.

The silk on the right with the zigzag print was my indulgence purchase. It is four yards of silk charmeuse. The print is huge and there are about 30 inches of black in between each iteration of the print, so placement will be, well, a huge pain in the @ss. I have it draped over my dressform (which is taller than me) to give you an idea of scale. I have no idea what I'll do with it or when I will do anything with it, but it is all my favorite colors and is a really luscious charmeuse and I will enjoy having it in stash to play with and pet.

What looks like a black and white floral is actually--I think--a navy floral. It looked navy in the warehouse, but black in the hotel room. In strong sunlight in my bedroom it is navy, but under artificial lighting it is black. I wanted it for a skirt to go with red tops, but I find black/white with red not as interesting as navy with red and now I'm waffling. It's only a smidge over a yard so a skirt is probably all I can do with it anyway. Sadly, a pre-wash did not fade the navy bits as I'd hoped.

I heaved my giant sack of fabrics onto the bus and we headed to Jomar, where I failed to take any photos due to my fabric haze (a combination of impulse buying and formaldehyde, I think). You will be shocked, shocked I tell you!, at what I purchased:



Not a single print. Although some people managed to find fabulous cotton prints (Elizabeth, not to name names), Jomar doesn't have a lot by way of prints. The purple/pink is a stretch twill which I now sort of regret and am wondering if I can dye (maybe a deep purple like my Cynthia Rowley party dress?--I burned it and aside from the lycra it appears to be mostly cotton and/or rayon). It is a great fabric for a sheath dress--a little bit of stretch, not too thick but definitely opaque, not too wrinkly and a nice smooth hand--but that Easter Egg color is not entirely professional, at least not for a petite lawyer who can easily look too girlish because of my size. The righthand fabric is a wool jersey in a fabulous hot pink (didn't photograph well). This fabric caused a bit of a tense moment as many people wanted the bolt from me when I was done cutting and there was some swooping in and poaching and I felt responsible. I am sorry that I was not more fierce in making sure it went to the first person who asked for it. :( But seriously, Jomar, I sold an entire bolt of fabric for you! And they rewarded me with generous cuts. Almost too generous, I whined when I went to pack. The rest are linings. (By the way, FFC did finally refund me for the non-stretchy "stretch" lining I returned.)

We bribed the bus driver with a little extra cash to make sure we all had time finish our shopping and headed back to the hotel. I think I was carrying my weight in fabric in two HUGE bags, each larger than my suitcase. I was a little concerned. However, I spent some time rolling all the fabric neatly and got it packed away no problem.

At this point I was exhausted. I will steal a line from LindsayT and note that I am probably more of an introvert than people expected. I love meeting and talking to new people--especially about sewing--but there is a limit to how long I can be extroverted. It takes a lot out of me and between the sleep deprivation and all the excitement my batteries were dead. So I apologize if I ever seemed aloof! It was definitely not personal, and I was really thrilled to meet everyone. I just had some pizza for dinner and crashed out as soon as I could.

I thought I might do a little sightseeing in the area the next morning before my 11:30 bus home, but I didn't wake up until 10:30! The bus ride home was uneventful until we got to DC and the bus was pulled over!!!! This is the second time I've been pulled over in a Chinatown bus. I wonder if that should worry me. I finally made it home and spent a little time communing with my fabrics, making all kinds of plans...

And now, for some fantasy sewing. I don't know when, exactly, I think I will get to all this sewing, but that's why it's a fantasy.

For some reason, I don't actually love this print. It is many of my favorite things--silk, turquoise, hot pink--but something about the scale of it doesn't thrill me. However, since it is all the colors I love (and therefore will go with much of my wardrobe) and it was $5 I picked it up (I found it on Vogue Fabrics for $14.99/yd!). The selvage says Anna Sui (c)2006. I think she must overbuy by a lot as a habit--it seems all the jobbers and mill end stores always have a ton of her stuff! I think I found this print in her Fall 2007 show, as the lower hem/underskirt of the look at right. I am runway, baby! I will make it into another Simplicity 2938 tank, cut a size larger than last time as this doesn't have any stretch like my Vietnamese silk one (I've already altered the pattern for a broader broad back adjustment). I considered maybe trying to squeeze out the Burda 08-2009-117 flounce blouse as I want to try the sleeveless version after making the one with sleeves, but I can wear a sleeveless silk tank/shell in a subdued print forever; a giant flounce has a limited shelf life.

LOVE this green suiting. It is a stretch with giant houndsteeth in one of my favorite colors and it will be a shift dress I can wear with a jacket for a professional look. But I am a little stumped as to what pattern to use. The two patterns on the left, Vogue 8633 and Butterick 5455 are the two sheath patterns I am obsessed with right now. But I don't think either is quite right. I think it needs to be simple and truly sleeveless, which cuts out V8633. But I think the fabric is too thick for B5455's neck pleats (and when I realized the B5455 midriff is only in the front I fell out of love a little bit). The vintage pattern on the right is a simple, classic sheath with an interesting French dart, but would require muslining and grading and a whole bunch of work and then it would be...the plainest, simplest sheath dress ever (you say classic, I say boring--tomato, tomahto). It would, however, allow the fabric to be the star, and the huge weave/print means it needs to be cut into as few pieces as possible.

And then I am a little obsessed with two projects Cidell has posted recently, the Burda 03-2010-107 strapless brocade dress and the Burda 02-2010-127 deep V neck notch collar sheath. But, I could never, ever wear a strapless dress to work, no matter how much I told myself the jacket makes it professional and you couldn't wear a jacket over the notch-collar sheath because that would be way too much collar going on (and I don't think it would work sleeveless, although feel free to convince me otherwise).

Oh and by the way, don't I already have a shift in this exact color? Why yes, I do. And two skirts. And a cocktail dress. I have finally broken myself of buying the same shoe over and over, now I just need to work on fabric!

The black and white knit print will be a cowl top, either my tried and true Simplicity 9626 (now out of print), or Simplicity 2580, which Melissa demonstrated makes a fab top. I am torn here. On the one hand I am not feeling the empire seam on tops lately, as I feel they cannot be tucked because it divides the top into weird thirds. On the other hand, I am the opposite of Carolyn--why sew a pattern you've already done when there can be something Shiny!New! to mystify or amaze you. And now I'm toying with the idea of Simplicity 2554 View C (with a narrower hip band). I have a scant yard of this so it may come down to which pattern actually fits the fabric. Carolyn and Meg were both into the black border on this one, but I am not drawn to it. What say ye of a black band at the hip? Slimming or widening? Interesting or jarring?

This adorable embroidered cherry fabric was a giant remnant, larger than I needed at around 4 yards. Someone in line offered to split it with me, but we both kind of wanted 2.5 yards. The cutting lady said she'd cut some off the bolt (conveniently already at the table) for me at the remnant price. She found a marriage in the fabric and threw in that part for free (a little under a yard), and I ended up with nearly four yards after all. So I can probably get a top and a dress out of this one.

For the dress, I am leaning toward Simplicity 2403. I love the double breasted view with the rounded notched collar, and the light voile weight and texture of this fabric would look great in that collar. However, I'm not sure the lightweight fabric will work so well as the skirt, so I'd have to do a black skirt. But I would (theoretically) already have a top that would have to be worn with either a red or a black skirt, and the outfits wouldn't be different enough to satisfy me. Maybe the skirt could be made of the same fabric? It will definitely be lined.

I am also considering Simplicity 2549 view A. It's a little vintagey and fun with that full skirt and puffed sleeve. But it would be a little cliche with that fabric, I think. Cherries are very retro hipster pin-up and while there's nothing wrong with that I don't want to be stereotypical retro hipster pin-up. I don't have the bangs, for one thing.

I was picturing a shirtdress with a peter pan collar but (yet again) I already have almost that identical item in my closet of a red swiss dot, my Philosophy Patrones dress.

For the blouses, I am pretty much set on Simplicity 2614, the Threads tie neck blouse. I do want to try out Burda 04-2010-105 soon (my subscription to Burda runs from July-June and the most recent issue I have sewn from is August 2009--so I have made virtually NOTHING from this entire year's subscription), but I don't think this is it.

Finally, we come to this double sided crinkle acetate. It is actually two layers of fabric fused together, rather than a print made of the weave. I was kind of picturing a shawl collar wrap dress with the collar and the tie made of the dark reverse side of the fabric. I went into my pattern stash and lo and behold found Butterick 5451. The problem is, nobody has made this dress on PatternReview! I want someone else to go through the work of testing this out for me. Heh. I may just go for it (when? who knows); I can scale back the collar in process by taking a deeper seam allowance at the outer collar edge if it's outrageous. I also kind of picture this with a 3/4 sleeve as Fall/Winter dress, so I'd have to add a sleeve. But I don't know if there's enough fabric for that.

Well, this is an incredibly long post. I think I might have a 12 Step level problem with fabric buying, but I enjoy it so and love having a stash of beautiful fabrics that call to me! And I really do have such a stash. I am very lucky. We'll see which one of these calls to me first (well, I already know it will be the red skirt--the serger is already threaded in red, but that doesn't really count as a calling).

All photos from the weekend are here.