Ah, the bitter-sweet satisfaction of a job well done.

Only bitter in the sense of wondering "what next?" I've spent a few days over the last few weeks helping friends create dresses for the '50s pinup burlesque night tomorrow. Wondering why they went for '50s pin up, when I can gaurantee the majority of people involved and dressing up to go will be wearing '40s styles... because the most recognizable pin up girls were all from the 40s. ANYWAY that's not my point! My point is...

DRESSES!

For the last few weeks I've been "helping" with this black and red cotton dress and two others (which I didn't take pictures of but really should have) while making my own. I use quotations around helping because in the end, I wound up doing a lot of the work. But I'm not bitter about it! I'm the only one not working, and also factor in that Miss S is moving on Friday, so I felt it was my duty to step in, and make magic happen. Actually, I feel like I can take credit for the achievement of awesomeness that these 4 dresses are, and I'm vain enough to do it. I'm not going to take all the credit, the owners of the dresses put in their hands and needles and helped with all aspects. And everyone made their own crinolines. These two dresses are based off B4790, but both have alterations. Obviously Miss S's red and black beauty has some paneling taken out of the front to give it a more belted look, and they both have V necks instead of boat necks. Loving them so much I vomit from glee.

The other two dresses I will post pictures of after the show tomorrow. One is another fun alteration of the B4790, with sleeves and a collar to look like a coat dress, the other is drafted straight from my brain, with no reference material. I hope they look great on stage, and I hope the lights don't show any of the flaws (because when you are rushing to complete 4 dresses and 4 crinolines over the period of 5 working days you are bound to make a few mistakes, even if there are 4 people working on them with 2 sewing machines going.)

Next project! We have now altered the B4790 for coat dress awesomosity, and I have approximately 5 yards of cotton blend suiting fabric. I redrafted it to fit the lines of a coat better. This is going to become a steam-punk inspired fall/winter coat for myself for this up coming winter season. I'm going to need to purchase some awesome lining fabric, and perhaps I can manipulate it into becoming reversable. We shall see.

As I'm working on this long-term project I'm hoping to make up some cute high-waisted sailor shorts, perhaps placket front. My family is doing a theme night at our reunion in a few weeks: Cannibals and Castaways. I'm going as Marianne from Giligan's Island (trust me, there's a super lol in this). I have almost everything I need, but some of those shorty shorts with the high waist would be super to complete the look. And I love the style. However, the only fabric I currently have with which to make these shorts is really bright pink denim, and I'm just not sure how flattering that will be as shorts. And the last time I made shorts was in grade 8 sewing class, when I made a pair of boxers. Which didn't fit. And I don't have a pattern. This is going to be too much fun!

Bright pink enough? Approximately 5 yards of bubblegummy goodness. Okay for shorts? Or should I get something else (very tight budget for new fabrics. I was really hoping I'd have something that would work for this in my remnants...)