Thursday, January 27, 2011

Updates: January Dress and around the house

Hello Readers! I just got my new fridge this morning!

This is the old ugly broken fridge.

And this is the new side-by-side fridge! It's shiny and new and I love it! My OCD will kick in in a few minutes and I'll have to scrub the whole thing down with soapy water and windex, but for now I'm admiring it. We've been keeping our food in the little wine fridge. You can't imagine how great it's going to be to put the food in a real fridge in the kitchen.

But enough about my appliances. I realized I hadn't posted the fabric for the January Dress yet. So here it is.


I went with olive green 100% linen for the shirt and bow. The eyelet is a white cotton paisley. I'll be lining the bodice with an ivory cotton (center). I wanted to use ivory eyelet fabric, but that's almost impossible to find in the shops around here. I compromised by choosing an ivory lining. It will add a little bit of the ivory color and it will help to really show off the eyelets.


When I overlay the eyelet onto the cotton it will create an effect like this. You'll get just a touch of the darker color. Just trust me on this one, it's going to look fabulous.

So what did I pay for all these fabrics? Well my plan had been to find an eyelet dress or top from one of the local thrift or consignment stores because eyelet fabric is so expensive. Unfortunately, eyelet hasn't been super popular in couple of years or so. I did see quite a bit of it last spring, but I guess it hasn't hit the thrift stores around here yet. So I had to go with this white eyelet that I found at Joann's. It was originally $11.99 a yard, but I had my 50% off coupon. Heck yeah. I ended up going home with one yard of the eyelet for $5.99.

The linen was a bit more expensive. I think I paid $6.99 a yard for it, but I'll check the receipt before I do a grand total post.

For the skirt of the dress I decided to use the skirt from this pattern.



It's just a simple 1950s circle skirt, but it's easy and won't cause me too much trouble. This particular skirt is pretty poofy so I'll be taking a few inches off the width of the skirt panels. I'll add a few inches to the length of the skirt panels to be safe, but I shouldn't need it. This particular skirt already ends near my ankles since it is not a petite pattern. (I'm 5'1/2".)

The plan is to make this an ankle length dress, but what do you guys think? Should I make it floor length or bring it up to the mid-calf and make it into more of a day dress? You're all my stylists so let me know what you think! Just remember that the bodice will end just slightly below my natural waist.

6 comments:

mbix said...

Congrats on the new fridge.. Now on the length of the dress. I would recommend the mid length. I wouldn't think there are many occasions where you can wear full length. Question on your bodice,did you figure out how to make it more fitting without a zipper? I know you mentioned that the vintage patterns of the 30s?? didn't have buttons or zippers so they tended to fit looser. I love that you are trying to incorporate modern fit while using a vintage pattern.

Marie said...

Wow, this is looking good Nancy...love that pattern...and your new fridge ;o)

Cameron Adams said...

Love the subtle contrast of cream and eyelets.

Anonymous said...

Mid-calf would be great on you. Love the new fridge. :)

Vintage Ladies Hats said...

I'm quite excited for the pretty dress you're making. I can't wait to see the finished dress. I'm sure it's gonna be gorgeous. By the way, you have a great new fridge. Hope I can save money to buy that nice fridge as well. :)

Brooke Harris said...

Your fridge looks so handsome, Nancy. Black is a great choice, and it looks so elegant. It perfectly matches your kitchen. Going for a side-by-side fridge is a good choice, as this provides you much more storage space for your goodies. By the way, how did the dress look? :)