True Confessions

I’ve been wearing this dress for like 3 days without a hem!  Quelle horreur!  I hung it up and forgot about it for a couple of days, and then I just decided it was too pretty to be hung up, but I didn’t really feel like taking a break from other projects to spend a few minutes hemming it.  It’s not even hemmed now; however, I trust you all can imagine a hem, and I promise I’ll do it this week.  Girl Scout promise promise I will.

It’s another version of Vogue 1027.  This is really what I wanted this dress to be in the first place, but on the day I found the brown fabric, I couldn’t find a nice aqua like this. 

Vogue 1027  version 2.0

What I learned:

Color contrast!!!:  As much as I do love color, I’m just starting to understand it in clothing.  I’ve been starting to get out beyond the same boring shades of blue and find more interesting combinations.  In nature and in art, I’m drawn to very saturated, pure colors.  This aqua for instance just glows.  Though it is my favorite color evvvarr, a dress that was entirely this bright was going to be too much.  I’ve never messed with contrasting colors in clothes I’ve made, but I thought that a belt of a different color would break up the bright quite nicely.  I thought about more neutral colors very briefly, but I quickly was drawn to this magenta.  It’s as deeply saturated as the aqua, but somehow the contrast of the two colors is enough of a change for it not to be overkill.  The lesson is that color contrast is worth exploring (though I can’t see myself doing it all the time).

Patterns in the 2.0:  I don’t really make up patterns multiple times.  For one, there’s too many patterns out there, and not near enough time to do them.  Sometimes I’m trying to avoid going through the pain that the failed ones have given me.  But my biggest reason is that I used to buy all the colors of X garment available.  I was always kind of bored and saddened by this, and I always knew that deep down it didn’t reflect my own creativity, but I didn’t know what to do about that.  Sewing, of course, helps you avoid the humdrum.  This dress makes me want to sew it again though.  It has such great lines, that it’s worth a revisit.  And what with the color contrast, it’s not readily obvious that it’s the same pattern anyhow.  Yay!  Bonus points for not having to fit this pattern again!

My favorite thing about this dress is that it’s the easiest garment to wear.  I mean, literally, pop it on over your head, and you look like a lady.  It’s more complicated to put on a t-shirt and jeans!

In the area of housekeeping, I will be categorizing my garments by type in the category cloud because I realize that almost all of my posts are about sewing, which makes it tough to find things later on (for me too!).  I hope you will find it useful.  It’s going to take me some time to do this, but I’ve done several so far.