Tutti Frutti

Sherry recently wrote an interesting post about style rules and it got me thinking about how much I dislike any rules which tell people what they should or should not wear. I'm short (or petite as it's now euphemistically called). "Style rules" usually say that I shouldn't wear bold prints and should dress in one colour from head to toe. Well, I say screw that. I love bold prints and usually wear a rainbow of colours. This dress is pretty typical of the kind of thing I wear every day.  

Aside from being a bold print (which I shouldn't wear), the fabric breaks another style rule. The print has both red and pink in it which are not meant to be worn together.

The shoes worn with this dress probably break some style rules too. I wear my saddle shoes with almost everything, though. I like the way they make fancier dresses look more casual.

I used a mish mash of two Burda patterns for this dress. The skirt is made from the Jenny pencil skirt. The bodice is made from a modified dress pattern that I got from a Burda magazine from the library.

I made a pleated inset for the front waist based on one of my vintage dresses. It's pretty much just a rectangle with three pleats that's sewn into the side seams. 

This was a really quick dress to sew up. I started it the day before I went to away for a few of days. I pretty much finished it that same day. I did the hem and a few other bits of hand sewing while I was away, in between scouring small town op shops and visiting my grandma.     

June Challenge Dress Two: Je voudrais un cafe*

I am lucky enough that my local library has Burda magazines that you can get out on loan. I get them out but hardly ever trace the patterns because it seems like too much work. I actually liked this dress so much that I did get around to tracing it. The dress is called the Parisian dress for whatever reason. I think it's meant to suggest that it's super classy and elegant, much like Parisian women (stereotyping much). Maybe it will make me classy and elegant, but I doubt it considering most of the time I can't be bothered wearing makeup or brushing my hair.

Unlike the last dress I made, this one is actually winter appropriate. I said I was going to make winter dresses for the June Challenge and then went ahead and made a summer dress for my first one. I blame it on 'earthquake brain'. Apparently, it's a thing.



The fabric is a poly blend double knit. It's fairly thick and stable. This is pretty much the first time I've sewn with a knit and it was surprisingly easy. I sewed it on my lovely green Elna supermatic. I wasn't sure how well she would sew it since, being made in the 50s, she wasn't really meant to handle knits. I needn't have worried. She sewed like a champion.

I look really annoyed but this is just how my face looks.

As per usual, I took no notice of the instructions because Burda instructions and I are not friends. I think it's the lack of diagrams. Luckily, it's a pretty basic dress, so I didn't have any trouble.

I love this dress. It's so comfortable. The fabric is lovely and soft. It feels like I'm wearing a sweatshirt but looks slightly classier.

Thanks for all your sweet comments on my last post. Some of you were surprised that I kept sewing and blogging through all the earthquakes. Much in the same way that, in Christchurch, we have to laugh otherwise we'll cry, I have to sew otherwise I will go insane. Amid all the chaos and weirdness, it helps to do normal things. Not to mention the fact that I have been so fortunate. There are so many others here that are having a far tougher time of it that I am.

* Pretty much the only things I remember from 3 years of high school French are related to food and how to order it. Obviously, I have my priorities in order.