So I decided that I really needed to start a blog--a personal blog. It all started with the Saga of Sariah's "Dress from Hell"...you know, the pattern that says "Make it in under 2 hours", only it takes two weeks?
Well it took an entire week to just get the right fabric. My favorite part of that adventure was when, AFTER I had brought a sample piece of fabric home to get approved by Sariah and followed that with a trip to Idaho Falls to purchase said fabric (deep purple with bright pink SMALL flecks) Sariah innocently said, "How about if we do deep purple and gold?" Yeah. Trip three began here. When I got to the fabric store I met my cute friend, Malia Kerr and her baby. We picked a great combination of purple and gold. I got home to hear that Andrew, Sariah's date for the upcoming event had asked Sariah if the purple was light or dark. When she replied that it was dark, he responded with "Good". Somewhere between the store and my house the dark purple had turned burgundy. Rats. Back to the store on Saturday, the day I was to begin cutting this little gem. Of course, Sariah had
the big ballroom recital with IBA (Idaho Ballroom Academy) from 1 - 3 and again from 4 - 6 so the adults could go to Stake Conference that evening. My realtor called to make an appointment for a showing of my house at 2. Quickly, I took a much needed shower, took the dogs away to Idaho Falls to get more fabric. Went to a different store this time to find the exact purple in her color palette. It would be perfect...until I got home
and found that it was fairly bright for the gold I had already purchased. Right. Too late to go back to the store before the SECOND performance, so I went immediately after. Nothing worked at store #2. Got halfway home and thought, "I need to go back to store #1 so I don't have to do this Monday morning or I will never get started! Made a U-Turn on the highway, found the perfect color. Missed Stake Conference entirely. bleh.
The worst part about sewing the dress was the fact that Sariah's body always seemed to be at school. I made 4 mock-ups before actually starting to cut. I do not recommend making mock-ups with peach and white striped sheets. Truly, she looked like a 50s housewife and had a hard time visualizing the real effect. Then I had to figure out how to cut the cape--Joy Price helped me with that one! Now, it's FINISHED!!!!! ...and now she tells me that I am a crappy picture taker with her camera. Stay tuned--when I get the pictures that HE took I will post them as well! For now:
This is a pretty good view of the slit in the side before we finished the neck, armholes or added the cape. I had just finished cutting the extra off the bottom. :) The slit comes up mid-thigh. Now that she has been to the dance and the slit felt the stress of movement, I would recommend anyone else trying this to cut the slit to the TOP of the leg! The sad news is that I really did have enough gold fabric for the inset, had I done that. Rats.
The pattern ALWAYS calls for more fabric than is needed; I sent the extra to Andrews mother, Mary (by request, of course!) and she had enough to make a vest. She had her own issues--too heavy weight on the interfacing for the first round of cutting out the vest--so it became a tie! It had quite a bit of umph!
They couldn't quite keep a straight face...
The front...
and the back...
Well, we finally gave up and took the side one more time. I shoulda gotten away from that light! I was too 'done' by that time!
