Inspirations and Temptations

For a long time I've been thinking I need a weekly feature and even knew what I wanted it to be but I've been hesitant to start. In "real life" I am exceptionally good at keeping to schedules and commitments (you might even say obsessive) but online it's a different story. So, instead of a "weekly feature" I'm just going to call this a "randomly recurring feature". Here we go...

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First, from Advanced Style (I'm going to only post smaller versions of other people's photos. Follow the link to see it full size.)

Overall, this is not my style at all. I like the look on other people but for me the long, loose, flowy business doesn't seem practical for my life. Also, nobody around here dresses like that. Not that that would bother me, especially; I probably dress weird anyway, but this just seems totally alien to our region.

What I can take from this is the colors. Orange, red, rust, turquoise, and a bit of green. The leggings and a more me-styled tunic? (whatever that is) I don't know when I'll get around to it but I'm definitely keeping this combination in mind and I will be looking for these colors and similar prints.

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And landscape print dresses!

You know that thing they do on TV with the ray of light from heaven and angels singing, "Aaaahhhhhhh..."? Well, when I saw Roisin's blog post it was kind of like that. I have been seeing and loving and being tempted by big landscape prints but I always think, "What can I do with that?" and since all I can think of is a quilt that I would get around to finishing in maybe 15 years I, sadly, move on. So why didn't I ever realize how perfect and lovely a landscape dress would be?

Roisin always inspires me with her use of wild and crazy prints. I'm always attracted to novelty prints but sometimes timid about using them, especially larger prints. I love that there are people out there to inspire me to do what I always wanted to do anyway.

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And here is temptation to which I have already given in:

If you have decided that you are absolutely not going to buy any more fabric for a while DO NOT go to Fabric.com (or any other fabric retailer) "just to look". How could I possibly resist fish paisley? Fish paisley! How awesome is that? I already have a black and white paisley dress. Just normal paisley, of course, but still, I thought I should do something different with this one so I bought the black on white polka dot to go with it. I'm thinking that will be the bodice but I haven't decided on all the details yet.

I love colors; I've never seen a color that I thought was too bright but there's something very appealing about black and white too. I've seen it recently here and here but I can't honestly say those inspired me this time. It was definitely the fish paisley.

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And this pattern:

This one has been tempting me for a while. I already have at least a dozen patterns that I haven't used yet. But I finally decided to get it. I'll make this one soon. Really.

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And a couple more: Anna has found a blouse pattern with hem facings. I'm generally not a fan of facings but that seems like a really good idea for curved hems.

And a temptation I will definitely not give in to: Oonaballoona's bright floral print trousers. She's got the booty to rock those things; I do not. But, for me, maybe some print leggings with a modest tunic? I don't know. I'll let that one simmer for a while.