Eclectvity

There is an eBay seller by the name of FreshandVintage.  I love her work.  I rarely get to “shop” for boutique clothing… I’m usually to busy working on the house, edjimacating the kids, or sewing my own things to go wandering through the beautiful things you can find in the eBay boutique market.  But… when I do… FreshandVintage is one seller I always browse.  I’d list all the others but thats a bit more of a rabbit trail than I’m willing to chase.

So what is all this about fresh, vintage, and stuff?  Well, this dress made me think of her user name.  Yep, that’s it.  Her user name seemed to fit this perfectly but in order not to completely plagierize it, I chose to dub this, “Freshly Vintage”.  Subtle huh?

So, this dress became an idea a couple of weeks ago.  Cathe  was thumbing through patterns and found this one…

Butterick 5019 for the curious.  Buy and enjoy.

Well, as you can see, this just has my name all over it.  All.  Over.  It.  It says, “Chautona likes this.  Chautona wants to make this.  Chautona’s Rosy Lorna needs this.  Chautona can’t buy the pattern.  neener neener.”

Yep.  That’s what it said.   Now, you know, I can draft my own patterns.  I often see things and think, “Man, I’d like to make that…” and then I balk at buying the pattern.  So, I decide to make my own.  I can do it.  I have the capability.  Usually.    Frankly, however, I generally don’t WANT to make my own.  Why waste the time if I can spend a few dollars and have the bulk of the work done for me.  Especially if I’ll make more than one!

But, this is Ridgecrest.  Ridgecrest.  Land of the creasote and the… 90 miles from nowhere thing.  Yeah.  That thing.  90 miles from the nearest mercantile of materialism.  (In other words, place where they sell fabric, patterns, and notions. I got the notion they don’t want me to buy any!)

Well, the dress is supposed to be a “wrap” dress but frankly, I didn’t want to think about it.  The shape of the description on the website didnt’ show much to wrap so I thought it’d look awfully “straight” and I didn’t like that.  So, instead, I just made a nice “fake” wrap.  It turned out cute if I do say so myself.

Fabric:   Gypsy Song by Susan Winget  (Three Sisters has it!)

Here is Lorna, fresh up from her nap, shoes on the wrong feet and untied, and the dress hanging half-cocked as it will be as she cooks in her “kitchen”, chases sergeant, talks to her imaginary friends, and snuggles with anyone available.

As you can see, I ran out of the prepackaged bias tape I had intended to use and apparently Wright is supposedly discontinuing the stuff from my internet research so I bought ribbon and “made do.”

Isn’t it silly how much it bugs me?  This is a silly play dress!  Why should I care?

Sweet dress isn’t it?  Very cute, and feminine.  Trendyish.  I had a different idea.

My friend Teresa gave me these fabrics for her daughter Hannah.

I wanted a flutter sleeve, so I created one with this pattern.

See, a flutter sleeve is just the curve of a regular sleeve inverted.  You cut an underseam and then scoop the bottom down in order to have a nice flowing sleeve.

I loved this rick-rack with it.  It gave it such a nice cheerful and vintagey air.

What do you think?  Do you like it?  I think I’m going to like it.