The Bastille Day Dress

Spoiler alert: There is nothing French about this dress. Except that it is awesome. And France is, by and large, but for the not-so-latent racism, pretty awesome! I mean, on the one hand, a longstanding intolerance for all non-French people, on the other hand, WINE. So, that’s a toughie, am I right? But despite it all, I have to tell you, I like those cheese eating surrender monkeys, I do, I can’t help it, with their Gallic shrugs and their delicious bread and their belief that lung cancer is something that happens to other people. And so when my mother asked what our theme should be for our summer BBQ, and we discovered the best date was on the 14th of July, well, the choice was clear, Bastille Day, of course! Viva la resistance!

Now would be the time for a Les Miserables reference if that wasn’t THE WORST THING EVER MADE AND REPRESENTS AN AGE OF TERRIBLE PLOTLESS MIND-ROTTINGLY SENTIMENTAL POWER BALLAD DRIVEN POP MUSICALS THAT HAUNT THE WORLD TO THIS DAY.

Ahem. Excuse me. Sometimes my rage about Les Miserables interferes with my life and my eyes get all black like I’ve been possessed by a demon, and I just hold the shift key down and let the world burn….okay, that’s it, move along, folks, nothing to see here.

So, where was I, Bastille Day BBQ! So given that I was going to be in Philadelphia anyway to watch a good friend change her name, my mother and I agreed that I might as well stick around to help cook and enjoy the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille together. I was like, a chance to cook a gigantic meal in a non-New York kitchen? Uh, yeah, I’m all in. And so we prepared a plethora of french-themed goodies and had a delightful time, or should I say, it was magnifique! Tre jolie! I would think of a third thing but I….don’t know any other words in French. It was fun, is the point, and I wore a new dress, because that’s how I roll. And it looks a little something like this!

Full disclosure, I’m aware that is a particularly blinding smile from someone who smiles deeply in general, but there had been wine, because, FRANCE, and also, it was a day ending in y…

Also there were mojitos. A very traditional french beverage…

This dress is, as you can see, awfully simple, which is part of why I love it. It’s McCalls 6744, a knit dress that can be both a tank or a wrap bodice. I clearly choose the tank option, but it was so easy to put together that I’m now eager to try the wrap as well. (P.S: The model on the pattern package is Angelina Jolie-ing SO hard with the leg thing, why is that still a thing? Discuss).

I like this pattern quite a bit, as no-frills as it is, because it really lets you highlight the fabric you use. This particular fabric was a gift from my supervisor Sam at the costume shop, and I will forever be grateful to her because, um, HAVE YOU SEEN THIS FABRIC?

Don’t you love it? Even if you don’t love it, I don’t care, I love it. The print had a repeat so I thought a lot about how to cut it, but in the end I decided to place the repeat on the bodice and let the skirt but a little plainer (as if anything about these silver and blue feathers is plain…). The material is some kind of slinky slippery synthetic, rayon, maybe? I’m not actually sure, but it feels amazing on the skin and is pretty good in the heat. I wore this out to karaoke a week or so ago and I am, shall we say, an enthusiastic participant, and also in my mind I secretly believe it’s also dance-eoke, and the dress survived and kept me pretty cool, even during a rousing round of “Please Don’t Stop The Music” (not my choice, but I was happy to do back up vocals…)

It’s close to a racerback in the back, but not quite, which is good, because I hate constantly feeling like my bra is showing. Some people just seem so cool about that, but not me, oh no, I’ve never been cool a day in my life an I’m sure not starting now…

The bodice is designed to be a bit baggy, and I think it works because of the elastic stitched into the waist. The pattern has you just flip and stitch down the neck and armhole edges to finish them, which I did, but I don’t know how I feel about it, aesthetically. I mean, I guess it’s fine, it just feels a little lazy. Thoughts? 

In my parents garden the thistles are in bloom, so I insisted my friend Ben (hi, Ben!) who is not only one of my oldest friends, but currently working for my parents, take my photo near them. I love thistles. In another life, I was totally Eeyore.

So pretty. See, at my parent’s house, everyone eats well, even the bees.

I know I did! So there we are, my Bastille Day Dress, which I will be wearing on many non-Bastille Days, because shut up France you don’t own me! I’m an ADULT!

In other news, I realize that I’ve made, like, 5 dresses in a row. I gotta make something else, people. This is getting silly.

Real talk? I probably wont, though…

The Mrs. Miller Dress

This post is dedicated to my dear friend Anna, who, in the blink of an eye, recently went from being Anna Raff to Anna Miller, and I couldn’t be happier for her.

I’m going to be honest with you, I’m not the kind of person who ever dreamed about their wedding. I dreamed about being an ass-kicking archeologist traveling the world and finding amazing artifacts. I dreamed of being a ninja, being a pirate, being a professor, having my own hair-care line, living in the 1700’s (which I would have done amazingly well at, der), and being a movie star. But weddings? Those I could always take or leave.

But  as I’ve gotten older, I realize that I do love going to the weddings of my friends. I love supporting them, I do, and I certainly love the free booze (well, I SAY it’s free, but if you factor in the cost of the gift, transportation, the outfit, the emotional damage of dealing with (generally older) people who can’t get over the fact that you don’t want to/aren’t getting married and want to talk and talk about it until the point that you start making up stories like “I don’t believe in marriage because that’s how the terrorists win” or “Modern feminism dictates that I can only marry myself in a secret ceremony ‘neath the full moon after summoning forth a unicorn and the mother goddess and the ghost of Emma Goldman”, or “I’m not really done with my sleeping around phase yet, but I’ll let you know when I get there”, you really do end up paying for all that “free” chardonnay). I very much love the opportunity to get dressed up. I love the opportunity to dance! But it’s not something I really think about very much, until I go to a wedding.

So when my friend Anna announced her engagement to her now-husband, I was thrilled for her, and I also knew that with engagement comes a wedding, and with the wedding comes the chance for me to make a new dress! I know, I know, twist my arm. But really, isn’t making a dress for a friend’s wedding the greatest gift you can give them?

(Don’t worry. I also got them a real gift.)

So, in honor of Anna, who is now Mrs. Miller (soon, relative to eternity, to be DOCTOR Miller, which is what I will always introduce her as because I’m a jerk that way), I made this dress for her lovely lovely wedding which was celebrated this past weekend in Philadelphia:

This dress, well, there are many ways in which I love it, and some ways in which I am a bit pfffft about it. Let’s do the pros first, shall we?

I love the fabric. I REALLY do. My mother thinks the print is a touch too subtle but I adore it. I bought it at Vogue Fabrics in Chicago last February when I went out to the Windy City for my friend Jenny’s wedding shower (oh, this fabric is wedding to wedding! That’s amazing! I love that!). It’s an Anna Sui silk crepe print and the drape is to die for. It’s so good, it’s worth ending a sentence in a preposition!

I like the skirt, which is a half circle, and I do love the fit of the bodice, it’s from my block with a modified neckline.

That being said…well, this I can fix, but there is a lining issue here, mainly that the bodice lining, which was not the one I had intended for this dress. See, I ordered a yard of black silk lining but it STILL hasn’t come from Mood Fabrics (THANKS FOR NOTHING!) and as the days flew past I got more and more concerned because the fabric wasn’t arriving, so finally I just broke down and used a silk organza from my stash. Upside, the stiffness of the fabric adds great structure to the bodice, downside, the neckline keeps flipping out and showing the white underside! Lame. I can fix it by altering the bodice, but I didn’t realize how bad it was before I put it on to go to the wedding… so I spent a lot of time adjusting my neckline until I just went with, screw it, it is what it is. SIGH.

What can you do about such things. Wow, look at that halo of frizz, sigh. Summer, I love you, but you aren’t nice to me.

What else, well, okay, so I think it might be a little short…

Especially in THIS photo. Yes, I was jumping, but goodness, that’s some leg…

It’s certainly shorter than my normal style. But maybe that’s a good thing! I got a lot of compliments and my friend Ben told me I looked like the fancy kind of escort, which is just what every little girl dreams of, so you know, there’s that. I felt a little odd but I didn’t have any awkward Marilyn moments, so all things considered it was a good foray into trying to update my hemlines.

All this being said, I am happy about this, and I got a lot of love for it at the wedding, which was very sweet considering that MY dress wasn’t the focus of the day…and good LORD did Anna look amazing:

It may or may not be the love part. Who can say?

Anna and I have known each other since the age of 8, and we went to school together for years and years, which also meant that our OTHER friends who we have known for years and years were there as well. And because they love me and have been dealing with me for literally just under two decades, they took my photo. But of course they encouraged me to bring out my inner jungle cat:

So glamorous, am I right? From here you can see that the zipper is a side zipper, which is blue, and you can also see my shoes, which I love very much, they are Chelsea Crew.

And there we go! A little not-quite-black dress for Anna’s lovely wedding. It stood up to the ceremony, at which I discreetly wiped away a tear or two, cocktail hour, in which I ate my weight in finger foods, dinner, in which I joined everyone in toasting the happy couple, and dancing, in which I, um, danced. Oh, and I look great drinking wine in it, which is good, because I did that a bunch too. I mean, come on, it’s a wedding. L’Chaim!

All in all, I’m very pleased with this dress. Of course, I didn’t look anywhere near as good as the bride, but I’m pretty sure that’s the point, right?

Congratulations, Anna! Or should I say, Mrs. Miller?

The Feliz Cumplieanos Dress!

It deserves an exclamation point, it’s such a big deal. So, my birthday is ACTUALLY tomorrow, but because I figured no one would be up for a wild time on a Tuesday (or maybe they would, I don’t know, I tend to spend my Tuesdays watching Buffy and sewing, but hey, if you guys are going to raves could you please call me so I can…not go to the rave with you? Thanks, appreciate it.), so I decided to throw myself a birthday party this past Saturday. But it wasn’t going to be just any party, oh, no, that’s amateur hour, no, I went theme. And the theme was? Well, I turn 26 tomorrow so OBVIOUSLY my theme was Feliz Quinceanera! DUH!

For those of you who are not/don’t know any 15 year old Mexican girls, a quinceanera is, as the name would suggest, a lavish 15th birthday party. Like a Bat Mitzvah (which I of course had, and my portion was the song of Moses, and I wore all black and almost gave my grandmother an aneurism, it was pretty cool), or a Sweet Sixteen Party (which I did not have, but I did go to some of them, at country clubs, which I’m surprised let me in, because, well, I will refer you to the earlier information about my BAT MITZVAH), a quinceanera or quince, as the kids say, is, like all parties given to young women, pretty much an indication that the lady is, er, open for business as it were, at least, the business of marriage. And so the young lady wears a bright pink dress, gets thrown around a dance floor, and everyone can see what a good wife she is going to make. Side note, in view of all the events the world over that show society that a woman is ready for marriage, from debutante balls to coming out parties (I’m referencing the Regency, not the closet, fyi)  I think it’s very funny/horrible that historically these events ended in women marrying men who were much older/total strangers/marrying them directly for their dowries, but hey, at least you get a get a great party first!

But I live in the 21st century and I’m a feminist and also, I’m an adult,  so I threw myself my own damn quinceanera at a bar half a block away from my apartment (read, within stumbling distance). It was really wonderful, and lots of fantastic people who I have somehow deceived into spending time with me showed up and bought me far too many drinks and for whatever perfect Kismet reason there was a taco stand IN THE BAR, from the fantastic and deeply friendly B’klyn Burro, a trio of lovely men who make divine food. They made me a special birthday taco! What the WHAT!? Check them out if you are in New York, they operate primarily out of my least favorite part of Brooklyn (i.e. Williamsburg) but don’t hold that against them.  So I believe a good time was had by all, but especially by me, because you only turn 15 twice.

And while I of course received many respectable marriage proposals as a result, I think I’m going to stick with my one true love for now:

He wasn’t invited. He’s still pretty mad about it.

Enough of this chit-chat, onto the CLOTHING. For my quinceanera dress, I was torn. I could have gone the more accurate hella pink shiny where-taffeta-goes-to-die route, OR I could make something I might actually wear again someday. Which did I go with? You be the judge:

Yeah, I went wearable. And I have to say, I don’t regret it, cultural accuracy be damned (and, I mean, I’m a half-Puerto Rican girl throwing myself a Mexican teenager’s birthday party, what the hell am I trying to prove?). This may be more of a hipster quinceanera dress, but why should we deny Mexicans the right to be hipster? I mean, that would be really prejudiced, you know? I don’t want that sort of narrow-minded thinking at my quinceanera, thank you very much.

I used my bodice block again, man do I love that pattern! Liz, you have my eternal love (well, you always did, really…) and added a half-circle skirt. I had actually wanted a full circle skirt and instead of just drafting it like a normal person I used a pattern I had in my stash, a vintage Vogue 8199, which for whatever reason I assumed was a full circle. BUT IT’S NOT. Ah, well. Still good, no?

A little back view for you, with my attempt at appearing coy. I hand picked the zipper, and I couldn’t be more thrilled with the fit of this dress.Well, the neckline sags a bit, and I really don’t know why, but c’est la vie. Any ideas? I can totally live with it but for the future I would prefer to eliminate that aspect…

I tried to blow out my hair, because nothing makes me look more like a telemundo newscaster then straightened hair, but it was, shall we say, not cold on Saturday and my blow out lasted approximately 30 minutes in the humidity of July in New York. And if I was the kind of person who cared about that kind of thing, this is what I would look like:

Life is SO HARD. Like, I can’t even deal with how hard my life is. If my hair wont stay straight what is the point of anything?

I’m just kidding! Back to the dress. It’s got pockets! Because why make your own clothing if you aren’t going to try to make pockets a part of as much as possible?

I legitimately don’t know. How baller is this tiara? I got it at Claire’s. REMEMBER CLAIRE’S? I hadn’t been there in years, not since I valued sparkles more than, well, anything else. But I wanted a tiara (because it’s my quinceanera DUH!) and I also ended up getting those sweet enormous hoops you see on my ears (NOT EVEN THE BIGGEST IN THE STORE.) and glitter tattoos for the people who ended up at my get together, and oh my, is that place a special one or what? The next time I need literally anything with One Direction’s faces on it, I know where to go! There were a lot of tiaras, I’m not going to lie to you, but I feel like I made the right choice.

At some point in the evening my cousin Elyse wanted to take my tiara and I threatened to cut her face off. It was pretty special.

DON’T TRY TO TAKE MY TIARA, OKAY?

Oh, how I crack myself up. The dress, the dress, what else is there to say. Oh, the fabric is from a flat sheet set I bought last year. I actually make a set of pajamas out of one of the sheets, and then I made this, and I still have some material left! Sheets are the best, so much material! I’m sure it’s a cotton-poly blend of some kind, it’s pretty lightweight and breathable. I lined the bodice but didn’t bother with the skirt. I hand stitched the hem, like you do. As I look at these photos I realize that some more ironing should have happened but whatever, I’M AN ADULT!

The shoes, which I don’t normally talk about but these are actually cute, are Chelsea Crew from ModCloth.

In a pink sparkly tiara. At a fake quinceanera. Because if that’s not adulthood I just don’t know what is.

So there you go, my rather vintage flavored quinceanera dress, appropriate for drinking ALL the wine and eating ALL the tacos. Thank you, everyone who came to my gathering (and to the very kind people at Bar Sepia who allowed us to invade their bar and give them the contents of our wallets) and helped me celebrate my 15th birthday as a Mexican teenager. Oh, and special thanks to my friend Anna, who took me out to dinner AND took these photos!

And thank you all for reading! May your birthdays, whether they are soon or a ways away, be as enjoyable as mine.

And may you love your garments as much as I love this! I kind of can’t wait to wear it again, actually. Then every day can be my quinceanera! Dios Mio. Que Bueno!

The Break My Own Rules Dress

In news that will come as a surprise to literally 0% of people, I have a lot of life rules. A LOT OF LIFE RULES. Never fight a land war in Asia. That’s a give-in. No sex in the champagne room. It’s gross, and unhygienic, and maybe other people want to use the champagne room, it’s not just for you and your sexy times! I don’t even LIKE champagne (I’m a prosecco girl myself) but STILL, it’s important. Last Crusade is the best Indiana Jones movie, duh, because of NAZIS and also CONNERY. Chocolate is always appropriate. Food isn’t caloric if you eat it while walking. Nude underwear with white garments. Come on. That’s an easy one. Walk quickly at all times. Walk like you have somewhere to be BECAUSE I DO. Winetimes are the best times. At all times. What else, what else, there are so many! Never show up empty-handed. Be nice to small children and animals. Don’t trust cops. I’ve got a lot of em. And one of them is, stripes don’t look good on me so I wont were them. EVER. EVER.

And yet…as it turns out rules were meant to be broken. (Except that land war in Asia one, come on, people, learn the lessons of history!) Because I recently got this striped fabric in a drunken purchase from Girl Charlee (yes, I drunk-buy fabric, come on, be cool I could do far worse things…) and under the influence of wine I was like, STRIPES? I BET I COULD LOOK AWESOME IN STRIPES AM I RIGHT? ALSO, KITTENS! AND MORE WINE MAYBE A LOT!

Wine me is the best/worst me, real talk.

BUT. Sober me was the one who actually got the package and had to deal with the stripes I had ordered. Sober me was like, ohhhhh, drunk me, we need to have a chat, and drunk me was like, yeah, fine, whatever, but I want chinese food and sober me was like, I can’t really talk to you when you’re like this and drunk me was like, you’re a pretty girl and sober me was like, you’re drunk but I’ll take it and drunk me was like, pretzels? and sober me was like, didn’t you just ask for chinese food? and drunk me was like, I’ll tell YOU when I’ve had enough! and sober me was like, this isn’t even making sense anymore and drunk me was like, your face doesn’t make sense anymore and sober me was like, ohhhhhhhhhhh boy.

So those two haven’t really worked it out. Good luck to them. But the rest of me made a dress, because you know what, screw the rules, worst comes to worst, it’s a beach cover up. That being said, I think this might have worked!

Right? I think the stripes might be big enough that I’m out of the danger zone! If you don’t know about the danger zone for stripes, good for you, but if you do, feel free to weigh in, please and thank you.

The pattern is actually one that I have used the hell out of, and it no longer really exists. It was Dixie DIY’s swing shirt, a pattern that has since been discontinued. You can buy a version of it now, though, here. I got this when it was still a free download and boy have I made use of it. This is the second dress version of the shirt I have made. The first is a cute minty thing I never documented, so this time, during a lull in my day, I practically forced my roommate Emily (thank you, Emily!) to snap these.

I really just elongated the shirt. Due to some hem issues this ended up shorter than I might have liked, but I did get a lot of love from the older gentlemen in my neighborhood so that’s…disturbing.

I did a decent stripe-matching job, though it could have been better. It’s always about matching stripes versus fabric efficiency, isn’t it?

A little back view for you. The dress is too simple for words. I added elastic at the waist but I will probably always wear this with a belt so no one will ever know! Sadness.

And that’s that. A very deeply simple knit dress that took me, like, two hours start to finish, and YET, I never thought I would make such a thing! What a world. Breaking all my own rules. But that champagne rule thing, that’s forever. Count on it.

What are your life rules?

The Under The Impression Dress

Happy 4th of July, everyone! I hope that if you celebrate the United States of America’s sort of kind of birthday you had the best day, and if you don’t, I hope you had a decent Thursday and ignored all the fuss. I actually worked today (time and a half whaaaaaaaaa?!?) so I didn’t exactly get to do the whole bbq and booze thing, but I hope you did, if that’s your bag!

So, as a short person, I have always been a bit wary of this whole Maxi-dress/skirt trend. That’s for all willowy giraffes, I told myself. A short curvy struggle like myself would look like she was swimming in fabric! No, no, no, none of that nonsense for me, I sensibly declared, and then watched in envy as seamstresses the world over made gorgeous curve hugging breezy-looking maxi-dresses from Jamie Christina’s oh so popular pattern.

But this summer, I had  a long talk with my friend Becca (hi, Becca!) about the subject, because I don’t know about you, but with some of my friends I can literally debate an item of clothing, a shape, a material, hell, a COLOR for, like, an hour and not get bored. This must be a me thing. That said, some people can talk about sports forever and beyond, they won, balls were thrown, running happened, I literally have no idea what that would be like, so we’re all different. So Becca and I weighed the pros and cons, she described her own maxi-dress (a very cute woven number, for those inquiring minds wanting to know, it’s good, I’ve seen it), I shared my fears, she comforted me, we laughed, we cried, we loved, and we learned. It was a deeply emotional journey, I don’t mind telling you, but I’ve come out on the other side now, a stronger better woman for it.

The point is, I flipping went for it and bought the pattern and made a damn maxi-dress. Which, as it turns out, really isn’t such a big deal! Concerned as I was, I figured, well, you hate it, you can  chop off a few feet at the hem and make it a normal-sauce dress. This isn’t brain surgery here. Sidenote, if it was brain surgery, I would currently be being thanked by a grateful patient and their gushing relatives because I’m pretty sure I rocked this:

I KNOW, RIGHT? I’m pretty into this. Like, in a big way. Probably because I was so concerned it wouldn’t work, that the fact that it does (it does, right, I’m not taking crazypills here?) has filled me with glee and delight. I seriously feel like a goddess in this thing. I feel like a model. I feel like no one even noticed me tripping over my hem because I look so damn good. AM I RIGHT?

This pattern is unbearably easy to put together. Like, it’s STUPID easy. For my first go-around I picked view A, which seemed the simplest. I used a cotton jersey from Paron’s, which I scored on sale recently (I have a problem….). It was a dream to sew with, actually, and I have enough left to make a tank top, I think….

The bindings are a little interesting, but I like the final result:

There is a bit of a bra-showing going down here, about which I am not wild. Ah, well.

My friend Jacqui, who I ALSO discussed this with, because seriously I think I talked to, like, five separate women about this if not more, so nervous was I, told me that she thinks maxi-dresses look GOOD on short ladies because you look like a column. Thoughts?

So why the title? Well, for one thing, I had been under the impression that this style wouldn’t work for me, and lo and behold it does! In fact, a total stranger told me she liked my dress on my block yesterday. Granted, she may or may not have been a crack addict, but you know what, still counts!

I really crack myself up during photo sessions, especially when there is ice cream involved.

And for another thing, yesterday my friend Victoria and I (hi, Victoria!) went to the Met (museum not opera) and decided to devote ourselves to the impressionism wing. In between picking out Matisse paintings we would hang in our summer homes if we A. could have a Matisse painting and B. had multiple summer homes, we devoured the Van Goghs and firmly ignored the Renoirs (because….gross), and generally had a lovely lovely time. And then we got wine. Which made it all even lovelier…

(My met admission sticker is still clearly stuck to my hip. Sigh….)

But in between she took my photos! So in tribute to the day, which was lovely, and the dress, which I’m pretty damn into, I dub this the “Under The Impression Dress”.

I also saw some lovely paintings, two of which fascinated me particularly because of the ways the painters depicted fabric:

Gorgeous, no?

Don’t you just want to touch this dress?

So I had to make some art of my own, obviously:

Still life with cat. It’s pretty brilliant, I know….

Have you ever had an assumption about something and then tried it out and just loved it? Do tell…have you made a maxi? Tell me about that, too!

The Dear Emily Skirt

I have to say, I’m a really lucky person when in comes to living with people. A year ago seriously landed on this amazing apartment with one of my really good friends and lo and behold, we actually can live together comfortably, which is a real miracle, honestly. The people you love may not always be the people you can live with but I am so lucky in that I live with my friend Emily, who is the best possible roommate and also a person I love and, and this is REALLY important, never want to slaughter her in her sleep. It’s interesting how big a deal that is….

Our other roommates, Jenny, who has just moved out, and Jordan, who has just moved in, are also amazing and wonderous, but they didn’t buy me the fabric I used to make this skirt, so I’m not going to gush as much for them, although I COULD….

So, Emily, because of her high level of awesomeness, bought me a yard of Liberty of London tana lawn for Hanukkah. She is amazing and bought me a fabric that I love so hard and would literally never buy, because it’s just so the opposite of inexpensive. Thank goodness she liked the cowl I knitted her in return, because honestly, the second I looked at her gift to me I wanted to run out and buy the contents of a wine store for her. Luckily I’ve had the chance to make her a bunch of things since I started living with her, so I feel like I’m chipping away at this debt, but this is a  Rumpelstiltskin level owing here, so I think it’s going to take a while…I’m up for that.

So what did I do with this treasure? I made a skirt!

A pencil skirt, to be precise, my favorite of all time, Simplicity 4529, which I’ve made twice now. I love this pattern, and all it’s many many (10!) darts), which do nice things for my whole curvy self. And I wasn’t going to mess around with this fabric and try something new and crazy, I wanted to make damn sure I treated this luscious lawn with the respect it deserves.

See? Look at that, doing nice things for me all over the place….

Lawn is a fluttery thing, so I underlined this skirt with a white cotton/polyester blend fabric which is actually sheet material I had bought to make Emily curtains! Ha, it’s all thanks to Emily, this skirt.

Please excuse the wrinkles. I wore this on the Bolt Bus going home to Philadelphia for a friend’s wedding shower (HI, Anna! Oh my lord it’s only a week and a half until the wedding ahhhhhhhhh!) and it got a bit fatigued by the trip. And then my mother was like, making me take MORE photos for you, what a draaaaaaaag. But she did it! My mom is the best mom.

I need to keep talking about this fabric. Because it is magical.

It’s also buttery and smooth and soft and gorgeous, oh, I cannot CANNOT say enough about Liberty of London. I know, blah blah blah, everyone who sews knows it’s fabric-crack, or doesn’t buy the hype, but let me tell you something, the hype is helplessly correct, because this is a joy to sew with and to wear. Normally I don’t even bother about how something is to sew, because unlike knitting you don’t spend as much time touching fabric as you do touching yarn, so I don’t think about the process of sewing as much as how it’s going to be to wear. But this, oh, my, can hands have orgasms? DARTS were fun with this thing. DARTS.

Another back view because when you stitch 10 darts into a skirt YOU WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW IT.

I love that little Roman-style button, don’t you? Oy, I see some putting on the hand stitching around the zipper, sorry, guys, gotta re-stitch that….

I hand-stitched the hem, and here you can see that and the underlining. All in all a simple skirt, and something I of course made about a month ago and am only now getting around to blogging. Le sigh.

I love this skirt. And it’s all thanks to Emily! Thank you, Emily! And please note, everyone, that if you are ever wondering what would be a good gift for me, well, now you know….And if you forget, just ask Emily. She’s got this.