Jo-Ann's Prom Dress Contest

Jo-Ann's has announced their Prom Dress Contest, and I got very, very excited until I realized (headsmack) that you had to actually be a student, attending a prom. Hmph. Jo-Ann, what about all those girls who aren't going? Or, alternatively, girls (uh, young women) who haven't attended a prom in years, but would love, love, love, to make the perfect dress?

A few things: first, I'm not crazy about the dress they chose for the ad, but maybe they did that on purpose to encourage young women to go out and produce something that actually fits and has a bit of pizazz. It isn't that the dress is ugly, but that it screams "high school prom!" Ruffles? Check. Ribbon? Check. Awkward bust line? Check. Causes girl to stand as though about to curtsy? Check.

The high school prom dress is that bizarre creature of style that can neither be too immature, nor too old, or too boring. After all, the average prom goer wants to be taken seriously as a young lady, to feel beautiful in her dress (whatever it looks like), and not to spend the entire evening twitching uncomfortably due to scratchy material, or worrying that the bust line is going to slip right off during the macarena (well, she would worry about it if people still danced the macarena). So how do you get sexy without the see-through strip tease of Renee Russo in The Thomas Crowne Affair?

At any rate, the ad has totally worked. It has utterly convinced me that even despite the fact that I'm completely not eligible for this contest, I could dream up a fantastic dress for the prom. And I think I'd do it based on a very simple concept (as The Thoughtful Dresser put it a few days ago): Fashion is cleavage, style is collarbones.

In my own case, I went to a few proms. The first time I wore a royal blue (not my color, as it turned out) bridesmaid's dress. The third dress was velvet dark blue (I didn't learn) and rather shapeless (because I was wearing it, not the fault of the dress). I bought it when my family went to Italy. But it was from Italy! The second dress was far and away the most wonderful dress I've ever owned. It was light, pastel green (perfect for my skin tone), empire waist (generally flattering), and a satin halter top (sounds "high schoolish" but it was tastefully done). The best part of the dress, though, wasn't the color or the cut, but the back--it had a V cut with satin laces that somehow avoided looking like I'd picked the dress up at the Renaissance Festival.

If I were to make this prom dress, I think I'd go for something similar--have fun with the back of the dress! Or make it sparkly without looking like a disco ball! Look adult, but without scaring your date's parents! And don't wear bright red nail polish with a pastel green dress (ooops)!

Xmas Quilt

For Christmas, J!'s parents gave me a beautiful, beautiful quilt by Lizi Boyd with the pattern above. The quilt is not pieced together, but instead is two large swaths of fabric stitched to each other. The fabric is amazing--green with large white dots and birds of paradise swimming among water lilies. I love it. It is the perfect "cookies and tea" blanket for rainy mornings. Or, alternatively, "apple butter toast and orange juice" for sunny mornings. Not that I actually eat anywhere near this quilt, since the chances of me spilling something stain-remover-resistant all over it are quite high.

Lizi Boyd also makes lovely cards, gift tags, and wrapping papers. I'm particularly in enamored of the gift tags. Eventually I want to find some cardstock and rubber stamp material so I can make my own, but I'd definitely use these in the meantime.

Gram's Stash

I visited my grandmother while I was home in Phoenix over the winter break and made out like a bandit on patterns she had stuffed away in boxes! My Gram has always been a sewer—she should have started up a store a long, long time ago. She’s 92, has suffered 2 strokes (one just a few months ago) and she still runs three sewing machines at the same time. She only takes breaks to watch the Diamondbacks or the Suns, when they’re on.

Anyway, we had a lot of fun going through her old patterns. Most were from the 80s, which isn’t a decade I’m much interested in (for “vintage patterns” at any rate), but she had a great time telling me all about how she used each pattern, who she’d made outfits for, and which fabric she’d bought for which shirts, skirts, etc. I could have taken quite a few more than I eventually ran off with, but below are just a few of the gems in her collection:

I'm not sure how I feel about the wrap around skirt on this dress, but I love the neckline.

Look at that gorgeous fabric!! I'd love to get my hands and sewing foot on some of that.

My Gram and a friend of hers made matching dresses from this pattern. They must have been a hoot, running around a town of 1000 people in the same dress. I hope one of them found a pea-green fabric with white dots on it, too.

Yep, that's a Brooke Shields pattern! Given that my Gram has been Bartlett pear shaped for as long as I've known her (so, at least as far back as when this pattern came out), I'm pretty sure she bought this pattern for someone else.

Doggie Diapers

My younger brother Arrr! and his lovely fiancé S adopted a beagle (named Baxter, of course) around Thanksgiving. He’s the sweetest little dog—curls up in your lap in the evenings, whines pathetically whenever Arrr! isn’t in the room, and spends the rest of his time with his nose to the floor smelling anything he can get a whiff of. The only problem is that B has a bit of a marking problem—he was around 3 when they got him, and arrived with all his bits intact. That was quickly remedied, but the marking continues on. Outside this isn’t a problem at all, but it becomes a bit awkward in my mom’s dining room. Or the kitchen. Or pretty much anywhere in the house. So, during Baxter and Arrr!’s visit to my parents’ house over the break, I sewed up a little doggie diaper so that B didn’t have to wear an ignominious ace bandage wrapped around a dish tower. Instead he got a snazzy ninja themed jock strap.

Unfortunately, the first effort wasn’t perfect—I didn’t use any elastic so the band was a bit tight whenever B sat down, and after about a week the fabric bunched up and had a tendency to slid off his tender bits. He seemed to be learning, though, as he wouldn’t mark when he was wearing the diaper, regardless of whether or not it was actually in place.

I’ve spent the last week or so brainstorming some ideas for how to improve the diaper. A few changes: A.) it needs a little pocket to hold the “diaper” (or, in Arrr!’s case a cut up old t-shirt—very absorbent and much softer than a dishtowel), so that you can remove it easily in case of accidents. B.) Elastic side bands to make it more comfortable when B sits down. I think this will also help with the bunching problem. C.) Shaping for greater wearing ease in between B’s hips.

Of course, I don’t have a doggie around to use as a model anymore. Maybe I’ll try to manufacture one out of cardboard, or something. That might be interesting.