I decided to make something for PatternReview.com’s Red Dress Contest. I had red on the serger and a red dress planned when I read about the contest. It all seemed to come together at the right time. I chose the Parisienne Dress from Burda 8-2009-128. I made it last year is a wonderful teal wool.
Two years ago, after the earthquake in Haiti, Patti F. in Chigaco gifted me two gorgeous fabrics. This red wool and a pinky-purple plaid. As soon as I had this red wool I knew it was destined to be the Parisienne Dress.
Here’s where I am. Dress is cut and mostly constructed. I need to finish the zipper. I’m happy to say the lining is also cut and sewn and I just need to install it. There’s about two more hours of work needed and I’ll be done. I’d love to wear it to work on Tuesday, but I’m not holding my breath.
And how is my Valentine’s dinner dress going? Well, it’s not. I won’t regal you with all the ways in which I dicked and dithered around with sewing a dress. But, I just could not make a decision on what I wanted to make and out of what fabric. There was too much silk jersey that has become ‘too nice to cut’. And this animal print. I actually really like it. And, I generally despise animal prints for myself. So, it became ‘special and different’. At the same time, I didn’t want to look like a tart. Then, I decided no pattern I owned was the *right* pattern for the animal print. So, I bought like ten from the Vogue Pattern sale.
I am not just not a last minute sewist. I can sew fast. But, I can’t make these decisions in the cooker. So, I’ll wear something from some recent shopping and call it a day. I’m totally ok with that too.
Besides, because it’s Valentine’s Weekend the latest dinner reservations we could get for Saturday (despite calling three weeks ago) was a geriatric 5:30 p.m. I don’t know that the retirees we’ll be eating with at 5:30 would have been able to handle me in all my leopardness, LOL. I’ve been calling it my Geriatric Valentine’s Dinner for days now. Turns out someone else I know made dinner reservations for Tuesday at the same place and the latest they would get was 4:30 p.m. So, it’s not just me!
Miss Celie's Pants 
I love this pattern, can’t wait to see it on you
Elizabeth
Western Australia
Oh, that red Parisienne dress will be fabulous! And can I say, once again, how much I appreciate all the work you did to get the sewing supplies to Arielle?
Love the red dress! Can’t you wear that for VDay?
You might have a geriatric reservation for dinner, but that other person has a lunch date (don’t tell them, though) LOL
Love the pattern.
LOL! That’s hilarious!
Wow, I’m curious about the restaurant… or is that too weird for us to know when AND where? Maybe fill us in after the fact. 🙂
Can’t wait to see the fully finished red dress on you. I entered the red dress contest on PR completely by accident. I made a red dress this week, wrote a review yesterday, and someone commented that I should enter it in the contest – I didn’t even know about the contest until then (and it’s my first).
Have a great Valentine’s day dinner (even if it is geriatric :)). I will probably be spending Vday playing Final Fantasy XIII-2 if it arrives in the post by then.
That animal print will be stunning on you! Love the red dress too.
This dress will be fabulous, as always. 🙂 LOL @ the Geriatric Dinner. For some reason that makes me picture you eating at one of those places where they serve dinner and then play Bingo half the night……
Y’know those later dinner slots were booked over a month ago…you will probably be surprised at the number of people who are eating at the same time you are that are not geratric…because us geratric people are staying home and saving our money for meds! *LOL* Have a wonderful valentine’s day dinner!
Long time lurker, first time commenting–Love all the posts and the beautiful work you do. Don’t think of it as a geriatric dinner–think of all the time you’ll have to do all the really valentiney things with your sweetie ;-).
Red dress is lovely! Please post pics of you wearing it. And I am so with you on dithering on fabric/patten decisions–and I have a million yards of fabric! (more or less). I tell friends that some of it has been in my stash so long that it’s now a member of the family.