Wednesday, January 27, 2010

A little attitude goes a long way

It's still a blue atrocity, but there's a little hope on the horizon.

Having its intended wearer put it on and strike a few Norma Desmond-type poses, made me feel a lot better.

It's still a shiny, unattractive, wrong-colored mess, but this I can work with.

Since I was building the bustier portion of the dress without having her around to try the dress on, I didn't actually realize that I was pinning the skirt lower on the waist than I actually wanted to, and I could technically unpick the skirt from the zip and move it up a ways, but we decided, staring into the mirror and at the drawing and at each other, to leave it where it is.

Earlier tonight, I took the pins out of the skirt and sewed it to the bodice and ironed it down. It looked more or less okay, so that was good enough for that step.

We're also going for a narrower skirt, more like the original design than the pattern. I think that she can muster up an attitude that rustles without actually having a full petticoat to back her up.

I think she's ready for her closeup, don't you?

Now that the structure is finished, I'm playing with the leftover fabric to figure out how I'm going to make the petals/ strips/ whatever they are that overlap on the bodice. I'm going to wrap them down to the waist and drape over the hip, which will also disguise the dropped waist seam.

I'm also thinking - and I may be wrong - that the more places I can break up the flat shiny surface, the less egregious it will look. Yes?

I'm also still planning to alternate the bodice piecing with shiny and matte. Aside from the designer's request, I couldn't use as much of the reverse as I would like, because there were scuff marks on it (how long did Joann's have this stuff around, anyway?) and the perma-crease is more obvious on that side. But some of it will work.

As for the back, it will fit better than it does in the photo. First off, she was only in the house for 5 minutes and I didn't have the heat on, so there are jeans with pocket flaps under that skirt. Yes, in a perfect world I think she could have used a swayback adjustment, but I didn't know that and without street clothes underneath, everything will sit better.

Fingers crossed.

She'll be back tomorrow night to watch Project Runway - is everybody as happy with this season as I am? Compared to last year's crap? - and I want to have something for her to try on that's worth actually taking off her street clothes. That's not too much to ask.

Right now I'm doing laundry, watching the State of the Union, catching up on blog reading and checking in to see how the PR Weekend planning is coming along.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are making a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Kudos. I do agree with you that that's a lot of shine though.

Becky said...

Wow. That is, I think, the shiniest dress I have seen in my whole life. Well-fitting and a good design, but shiny. I'm sure you'll come up with a way to tone it down, though.

Nancy K said...

It's better than can be expected from ugly polyester. It certainly is shiny.

meredithp said...

My eyes!!! Should really wear shades to read your blog until this project is over :-)

I'm lovin' this Season of PR. SOOOO much better than Season 6. I loved some of those burlap dresses, especially the red ones! Many excellent designs.