Day 17. Necessity breeds contempt.

OK, not really. But this morning, staring at my closet, wishing I had more clothes, different clothes, clothes that fit... I was struck by a sudden notion to force one of my sewing flops (sort of flop) into a wearable item. The crazy orange brocade too-long-shirt-too-short-dress-too-big-all-around...

 

OK, so I was being tricky with pictures. The thing is, the straight on before and after don't even come close to illustrating the drastic change the 'back brooch' made! Here are the straight on shots, before on the left, after on the right.

 

This orange shirt-dress-tunic thingie was one of my first projects, made to go with my white brocade jacket that I recently shortened. I had the pattern on hand (Simplicity 3799) for something I had made for my mother. It's not my style, although I like the round neckline, but I wanted something simple to make out of the zany orange fabric to go with the white jacket and thought this could have a sort of 60's A-line vibe. I meant for this to be a dress, but once it was complete, I realized that it was too big around the hemline to wear without leggings.

To add insult to injury (the injury being bad pattern selection) I've lost weight since I made this dress-shirt. I've been thinking of refashioning in some manner. I even tried on the other day upside down to try to figure out if there is enough fabric for a skirt (jury's out on that one). This morning when I was getting dressed, I remembered a trick I saw on New Dress a Day, using a brooch to gather the extra fabric in the back. I decided to try it! The fabric is a little stiff, so it doesn't drape well, but enough for me to stand for the day.

[high tech sewing technique]

I found a short sweater in my never-ending stash of black boleros, added a cozy cashmere scarf I got in the discount bin at Anthropologie, and I liked it! Yay!

[from the side. need new camera.]