Contrary to my relative lack of recent blog posts, I have been sewing up a damn dust storm of spring dresses. To the point when I am bailing on plans with friends so I can go home and work on them. I have a trip to NYC coming up in May and I’m hoping to only wear stuff I’ve made so that if I *happen* to run into Scott Schulman (by which I mean street stalk) I can say “Oh this? Yeah, I made it. No big. NOW TAKE A PICTURE OF ME IN IT.” (I am aware that it is insanely sad that one of my biggest NYC fantasies is to be wandering around the East Village and unwittingly get photographed by The Sartorialist while I’m like, rifling through a  used book bin or something looking effortlessly chic and unflappable. This fantasy may have been fuelled by one my all-time favourite fashion moments. In 2005, I was wandering in Barney’s over a long weekend break trying to look like I belonged there in my slightly more feminine b-girl take on Annie Hall menswear (including cream Kangol cap and 70’s bow front blouse, the entire outfit costing less than a light bulb in one of their minimal displays) when the so-hiply gay-it-hurts salesman stopped in the middle of his patented/arch “You really need this jacket this season” speech to a wealthy, waspy Upper West side doyenne to stop me and say, “I LOVE what you’re wearing” as I walked by. I died. And cried inside. And then died again. God I’m shallow).

Where was I? Oh yes. So I’ve been kind of obsessed with cobalt blue as of late (as evidenced by this post). When I found this deep, thick knit with a slight stretch on sale I had to have. I spent too much time deciding what to do with it and finally settled on McCalls’s 6324. I love this pattern. It has everything I like in a dress- a fitted bodice,  scoop neck, a full skirt and a little interest by way of that zipper up in the front.

I’ve been using a lot of McCall’s patterns lately and I like working with them. After trial and error I’ve discovered that I am a size 12 up top and a 14 on the bottom. I cut the whole dress in 12 since it’s so full in the hip, but ended up taking it in quite a bit at the sides since the fabric had quite a bit of stretch to it. I hunted for a really special zipper but ended up using this brown & gold zip from my stash.

I made this specifically for a boys-night-out trip I made to Toronto a few weeks ago (post break-up my advice is to get drunk with your guy friends as much as possible. Being surrounded by men who love you while wearing a pretty dress is more healing than magic crystals and burning sage). I spent the 6 hour bus trip from Montreal stretched out, watching Vampire Diaries (I know, it’s terrible, I’m sorry but I love it) and hand sewing the hem and straps. It fits great, the colour is amazing and I’ve got a lot of wear out of it but the front zipper takes some getting used to. I am a necklace vs. earrings sort of lady and I kind of had a mental block styling it. But change is good. I can change.

Busted out 2 more dresses last week so hopefully I’ll get a chance to shoot them this week, now that the weather is finally suggesting spring again.