Friday, July 31, 2009

Good Heavens, child! You can't go in that!

What do you think?

I was poking around at Etsy today, looking at jewelry. Specifically, I was looking for a garnet necklace as I was thinking about what I would wear with this dress (sorry, it isn't ironed), if the day ever comes that it is completed and I find a suitable venue for its use (Oscar tickets anyone?)...

I started making this gown for myself 12 years ago - yes, 12 years ago, just after my son was born, but before his first Halloween. Once Halloween approached, I set it aside to work on his first costume. Almost all of my sewing since then has been costume related.

I have gone back to this dress a handful of times (maybe a fistful), usually during the fall with hopes of wearing it to a fancy holiday party, or to the Nutcracker with my daughter. I am on the third bodice so far. As fashion has changed over the decade, and my own ideas have changed, so has the dress. The skirt has morphed from a huge, billowing, full skirt (think Cinderella) to what it is now: a long, slim skirt with lots of extra pleating in the back that forms an abbreviated bustle (think Victorian age, but with the ability to sit in a chair). The bodice started in dark green velvet with long sleeves, went to a spaghetti strap number, and then was totally ditched and started anew in this garnet colored, matte heavy satin, which I am pleased to say fits, but through lack of time and dedication is not yet finished. The thing that hasn't changed is the fabric in the skirt. I fell in love with this fabric the moment I saw it in the drapery section of a large fabric store in Rhode Island (which is now gone, sadly). Yes, you could say it's made of curtains (with a few degrees of separation). How very Vivien Leigh. My love affair with this fabric continues.

I started looking for a necklace on Ebay, but I don't think Ebay likes garnets. Though I did find these things I liked: this Lily fabric, and this pom pom trim (you can never have too much pom pom trim) and this very cute little sparkle. I got distracted. And then I moved on to Etsy. There, I found these interesting possibilities:
The Nugget Pendant piece
and the other Garnet Necklace

Of course, my favorite is the Brown Smokey Quartz (by far and wide the most expensive). Luckily, since the dress is still 3 hours from completion (three free hours I will NEVER find) and I have no place to wear it yet, I don't have to decide any time soon.

I was just window shopping.

1 comment:

Lisa's Cocina said...

How cool that you sew and know how to make your own clothes, even if they are 12 years in the making! My grandma (and my mother, to a comical extent) was a great sewer and I regret that I never really sat down with her to learn. I've made one skirt in my life, but it was with the help of the most irritable teacher at a JoAnn Fabrics store. I've never worn it in public. I do have the curious habit of buying fabric when I travel to other countries. I've got some beautiful fabric from India and Thailand just begging to be worn, so it's always been a future goal to sometime, somehow, learn to sew. Seems like such a good thing to know.

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