Hot Jungle Princess

No, not me silly! The Dress! Actually, it's probably not the best description of the dress either but I wanted to use that title. [ahem] Anyway...

Last year I had such fun following Anne's Jungle January but I never thought I would participate. But then I fell in love with these giraffes that I found at eQuilter. (Yes, it's quilting cotton. I understand that's considered controversial in some circles? Hmmmm... strange.)

After thinking about it for a little while I decided I wanted to use it for just the front panel of a shoulder seam princess cut dress so I only ordered a yard and a half of it. Then, a few weeks later I was doing my weekly browsing in the local Walmart's tiny fabric department and found New Look 6209 and instantly knew it was perfect for my giraffes.

I only needed to cut one narrow pattern piece from the giraffes so in order to maximize the amount of leftover fabric I folded it off center. I now have enough to make a summer version of this dress. Or something entirely different. (Please don't judge my decorating skills. The part of the room you can't see is even worse.)

Here is the finished dress. (I really just can't pull off the surly model pose.) I love it and I will use this pattern again. Modifications: I added long sleeves and pockets. (Why can't designers understand that pockets are not optional?) (I think my tripod wasn't exactly level. I'm sure I wasn't really leaning.)

Finally, a Jungle January post calls for a picture of a wild jungle creature. Well... she's not actually that wild but she can be surly sometimes.

*Welcome to all who come here via Jungle January. This is not a sewing blog but I do post about sewing occasionally as well as other stuff. I hope you will come back again.

UPDATE: Here it is: the latest Jungle January post

Greater Lengths

When I was a small child in the 60's grown-up women's dress length was below the knee and little girls' dress length was just above the knee. At least that's the way it was in my mother's world. I thought the longer skirts were beautiful and wanted dresses like that for myself. Usually my mother would give in to my trivial whims but on the matter of hemlines she would not budge an inch.

Before I was considered old enough to wear longer dresses styles changed. Mini-skirts came along in the 60's and by the early '70's, when I entered junior high school, they were firmly established and it was possible for girls to wear them to school without getting sent home. At that time it didn't occur to me that this was an area in which I could rebel. Skirt lengths were what they were. And besides, at the time I didn't care all that much anymore. I was soon to be a teenager and had other concerns. Perhaps even more significant, around that same time girls were finally allowed to wear pants to school so most girls, myself included, wore pants more often than dresses.

One day, I forget the year but 74 seems about right, I was in the high school library with several other girls. We were looking at the latest issue of Seventeen magazine. In it, to our surprise, we came to a picture of models our age wearing skirts with hems below the knee, with the prediction that this was what everyone would be wearing next season. There was shock and outrage. All the girls declared that they would never wear anything like that. But I secretly liked them, but based on the reactions of my classmates, I was not very hopeful that this fashion prediction would come true. Of course, within the year all the girls, even those who swore they would never wear them, had to have the new length skirts. We still all wore pants most of the time though.

I have no idea what happened to hemlines among the fashionable women after I graduated from high school. I stopped paying attention. I continued to wear pants almost all the time. I think there were entire years when I never put on a dress. The few dresses I wore were mostly the same length as the ones I wore during my last two years of high school.

In just the last two or three years I have rediscovered the joy of dresses. They are actually more comfortable. The waistband on pants always bothers me. And dresses are prettier. I'm a girl! I like pretty.

My dresses now are mid-calf length or longer. There are practical reasons for that. My legs look like the bellies of two dead fish. Aside from the self-consciousness about ugly legs issue, the length just feels right. It's convenient too because most of the patterns I buy are already the length I want and only need a narrow, half-inch, more or less, hem so there's no need for a lot of tedious measuring. But even if it were not for these very real reasons I would still wear my dresses this length. Because I am still that little girl who always wanted to wear longer dresses.

There's no such thing as too much fabric

Here are a couple of recent finds for all you quilters and seamstresses:

The Fabric Attic - lots of reproduction fabrics from both the 1800's and 1900's; also a lot of western, southwest and animal prints; quilt and pillow panels, fat quarters, a few quilt patterns. I love the old-fashioned minimalist website too. Not so long ago when I would come across a site like this I would be just a little bit put off; I would think, "Couldn't they go to the trouble to dress it up just a little?" But now I see so many sites that have extremely complicated layouts, impossible navigation and dozens of things that flash and blink and compete for my attention that when I come across a site that's pure content I almost want to stand up and cheer.

The Fabric Fairy - this one (a lovely site that's dressed up just right) specializes in "children's prints" but they're definitely not just for kids. They have the expected cars and spaceships and zoo animals and such but there are also many colorful florals, paisleys, geometric and other miscellaneous prints that would be suitable for any age. It's mostly clothing fabric - knits, corduroy, etc - but they do have some great quilting prints and panels too.

Projects, Projects, Projects

I've always been a one-project-at-a-time type of person, at least when it comes to sewing, but I'm about to have several projects going at once. I'm just getting ready to start a super secret project with a "deadline" in just a few weeks. The person I'm making it for isn't reading this but I'm going to keep it secret anyway. You never know when someone who doesn't have Internet access will talk to a friend who does or even get Internet access themselves. But I am excited about this one and I'll tell you all about it and post a picture when it's finished.

I'm still working on the quilt I mentioned in the last paragraph of this post. It's coming along nicely. I'm not sure if I'll show it off or not. It's sort of crazy, not literally a "Crazy Quilt" in the usual sense but sort of made up as I went along out of mostly random size pieces and I'm not sure whether I'm proud of it or ashamed of it. I'm really only making it to justify having kept all those scraps for all those years. I'm going to put this one aside for a while to work on the Super Secret Project. That's pretty easy to do since I don't have a proper quilting frame. I've been using a needlepoint hoop, which is actually working out pretty well.

I need to work on some regular sewing projects too. I have a small stash of fabric that's mostly from the dollar table at Wal-mart and it's been a long time since I made anything so yesterday I cut out a shirt. It's an aqua, pink and purple plaid flannel. It's the wrong time of year to be starting something made of flannel but I don't care. They are spring colors and we often have a big freeze in late April. I might get to wear it.

Finally, I have in mind what should be a long term project. I've always thought it would be cool to make a postage stamp quilt but the thought of all those tiny pieces of fabric is a bit overwhelming. But now I'm thinking I should just start a top and plan on taking years to finish it - just sew together a few pieces now and then. (Here is an idea and a couple more)

Anyway those are the main crafty things I have in mind so if I start slacking off on this blogging thing you'll know why.