All posts filed under: What I wear

Gather Ye Rosebuds CoCo 2017 Gala Gown thedreamstress.com

Gather ye Rosebuds… a 1916 crinoline evening dress

And here it is! My 1916 crinoline revival evening dress: Officially, it’s been dubbed the ‘Gather ye Rosebuds’ dress – I felt I needed to make it before I was too old to get away with this look, it’s trimmed with roses, and there was lots of gathering (my gosh was there so much gathering. I gathered, and gathered, and gathered some more….). Unofficially….it’s the Jellyfish. I assembled all the pieces, put them together, put the dress on, looked at myself, and said “Oh dear, I’ve made a jellyfish!” I have mixed feelings about the Jellyfish. I really enjoyed wearing it. It was very bouncy, and I bounced a lot (lots of people took videos of me bouncing and spinning in it, but so far I’ve only seen one and I can’t figure out how to download it!). And I knew it was far from perfect so I didn’t feel the need to be precious about it. But…I know it’s far (so far…) from perfect. It started out really thought-out and precise and beautifully finished, …

Elephants & Kangaroos thedreamstress.com

Kangaroos & Elephants Oh My! – (almost) first me-made dress

Published by The Dreamstress

In the sewing community May is Me-Made-May – a month of trying to wear more of the things you’ve made, using them to get out of wardrobe ruts, and setting yourself personal challenges around them. I’ve never officially participated, in part because wearing stuff I’ve made every day is pretty much an obligation of my work, and what I wear cycles in response to what classes I’m teaching at the moment, what patterns I’m working on for Scroop Patterns, and the weather (which currently includes the first snow of the winter – yay (note sarcasm)). In bigger part, I’ve always been too busy with either the Sew Weekly, or the Historical Sew Fortnightly. Between sewing-teaching work, history-lecturing work, pattern-making work, running the HSF, and life, I’m one additional thing away from dropping all my balls – and I’m pretty sure that what I’m juggling is a mix of ostrich eggs in extremely fragile shells (some of which are well past their best-by date), newborn dragons (a la McKinley, where dragons are marsupials, so newborns are …

A red Miramar and a Scroop Fantail with pockets thedreamstress.com

A red Scroop Miramar, and a sneak-peek at the Fantail skirt with pockets

Published by The Dreamstress

I love bright red. Bright red lipstick, bright red clothes, bright red shoes*… Every time I see a pattern I like I think how good it would look in bright red. And whenever someone makes one of my Scroop patterns in bright red I am super envious. So why don’t I make all my Scroop stuff in bright red? Because bright red is a glorious colour for making me cheerful, but a terrible for showing construction details. So, when I choose fabric for Scroop samples I have to prioritise things that photograph well over my personal taste, so no bright red. And by the time I’m done making toiles, fit test samples, and modelling samples for Scroop, I usually have more than enough samples of a pattern in my personal wardrobe (which I try very hard to keep within reason), and I want to sew something different! Happily, and eventually, things do wear out, and I get to make new ones, and I get to make them in wonderful impractical colours, like black, and bright …