Hello all. I hope you have your shoe closets locked up tight, cause I'm about to knock you out with one heck of a dress. That's right, I was not speaking in hyperbole during the last
#sewdollyclackett post about hemming a poppy dress. The "Painterly Poppy Dress" is real, and it's amazing. (I'm really getting into this whole dress naming thing. Long live Dolly Clackette!)
Are you feeling woozy yet? No? Darn! Frog say in a ready position with the shoe boxes, I have to soften them up with a few more photographs. I know, let's pander to the pocket lovers. Back side of pocket bag matches skirt, front pocket doesn't. Ooo La, la.
This is my #sewdollyclackett dress number two, a pattern mash up of the By Hand London Anna bodice with the Christine Haynes Emery skirt. OMG, don't these two patterns looks fabulous together. I just want to squee all over myself and make a couple more. The credit for this idea goes to
Jennifer Lauren and her amazing Christmas Dress. Upon seeing it I drooled all over the keyboard and then plotted to make one of my own.
That must have made Ann, over at Gorgeous Fabrics, spider senses tingle. She went and posted the perfect fabric for this type of dress, a giant floral boarder print. The print starts out as kind of like a multi-colored polka dot that gradually morphs into poppies and foliage. YES, YES, YES, take my money!
If you can believe it, this was my very first border print purchase. The plan was to make the Anna/Emery combo and put the largest flowers on both the hem and top of the bodice. However my Christmas cookie addled brain neglected to realize that I'd need extra yardage to do this. It just though, "Hey 2 yards of 60" fabric is plenty for a sleeveless dress." Yeah dumb dumb, if it's an all over print.....but you only want to use the one edge! Past Heather, buy another yard!!! Past Heather never listens. She probably couldn't hear me with her head buried in a cookie tin anyway. It was time for Present day Heather to put on the thinking cap and came up with a solution.
After playing around with the pattern pieces, I could see that after cutting the skirt some of the large floral area would still be left. I could also cut the bodice upside down on the print, to get some of the smaller flowers in the shoulder area. Then a few large flowers could be cut out and appliqued to the bodice. This crazy plan might just might work!
I cut the skirt and bodice pieces as planed and then used the lighter print area for all the pieces that wouldn't show. Except for the one side of the pocket bag, they needed to blend nicely in with the skirt. See my brain was working on that day.
After completing the rest of the dress I turned my attention to harvesting some of those large flowers. To keep the edges from fraying, I block fused the fabric before cutting. Then for added insurance I put fray check on the backside edges.
When it came time to attach the flowers on inspiration struck. I had some left over beads in my craft supplies, why not use those to hide the hand stitching? Get out the needles, cause we've got some beading to do. Who am I doing all this hand work? Frog hand me some chocolate, I think these poppies must be making me a little high.
Tadaaaa, a pop of red color on top, balancing the bottom. Perfect!
After completing this dress I knew it needed some very special shoes......and none of my red shoes matched the orange red poppies. Oops, I once again bought a fabric that is not in my color scheme. At least the background isn't ivory this time. Then Frog told me I was thinking about this all wrong. A dress that necessitates a shoe purchase should be a plus. Thanks Froggie, you'll always be my number 1 enabler.
So we asked ourselves WWDCD - What would Dolly Clackett Do? Purchase Miss L Fire heels with the grapes on the toes? Yes, yes, she would.
Oh sweet, I think those shoes finally made all of you pass out. Frog, plan "Rudy Slipper" is a go! Start filling the shoe boxes. Muhaa haaa! You didn't know I was the wicked witch did you? My color correcting and my new nose totally had you fooled. "I'll get you my pretties and all your little shoes too." Then I'll instagram my new ensembles, I'm not a monster after all.
