Spring Colors

In the Bay Area, warm weather generally shows up rather early in the year as a tease, only to disappear into a gray and rainy Spring.

As soon as the sunshine appears, I love to begin cutting into pastels and sewing up sun dresses, even though it might be February and I know that the cold and rain is bound to show up once again.  This year, however, I keep choosing projects with a decidedly Fall color palette.  I cannot say why, but it keeps happening.

And once again, that wool sheath and matching coat project that I have been meaning to tackle for YEARS is going to have to wait for the seasons to change.  The fabric, lining, zipper, and everything else needed is in the sewing room, but somehow, the darn thing never gets started.  Still, I cannot make myself work on yet another cold weather dress.

So I have finally turned the corner. 

This upholstery fabric was originally intended as a slip cover for a chair.  Well, that project never happened, although I have used some of the yardage as small home décor and craft projects, here and there.  What remained sat in the corner, on its roll.  

At some point, I came across this image of Dita von Teese, and immediately knew that a dress was going to be the perfect thing to use up some of that upholstery fabric.  

Dita's dress is more 18^th century with the flat front corseted look and pannier silhouette (which may or may not have been a part of the original design when I look at that hemline) than Gertie’s new shelf bust dress pattern with its 1950s style, but I love it!  That being said, if anyone has an old Vivienne Westwood design just laying around and in need of a new home, please feel free to send it on over!

My first thought was to use some contrasting cotton for the pleated bust inserts and another print for the straps.  Goodness knows I have enough quilting cotton remnants that would have worked beautifully.  But on second thought, the additional prints made me think of a quilt (gee, I wonder why . . .) - which is lovely, but not the look I am going for.

Turns out, I just scraped by with the yardage.  I guess it was meant to be!  And while the design does not lend itself to pattern matching, those large skirt pieces made any attempt futile.  One less thing to worry about, right?!  But as I am putting the dress together, I quite like how the mismatched toile motifs look.

We shall see how it all turns out . . .