The East is Red

Well, small exaggeration. I live on the east coast of Australia and I have made a red dress, but that is as far as it goes.

For years I have avoided red, and I still don’t like the bright Chinese style red, but I am coming around to appreciating the darker, bluer red like crimson or cherry. So I bought a remnant of cherry red ponte and if the fabric has been bought it has to be made into something. At least that is the goal. Heaven knows my stash is proof that it doesn’t always work that way. But this time I not only had the fabric, but I had bought some new patterns and wonder of wonders! I felt like trying a new pattern. This does not happen often, I have to say, I have a distinct leaning towards the TNTs. Just because a pattern has been made a dozen times does not mean that it can’t be made again. It’s just warming up nicely.

But I had bought Vogue 9107and 9112 and made up neither, and the cherry red ponte seemed quite a good match for 9107. Not the colour blocked or mixed print version, I am truly hopeless at getting those right, but just a plain version of the dress. I was thinking to add a cowl, but when I found a nice matching silk velvet scarf in my wardrobe I dropped the idea. At least for now, I can always add it later if I feel I need the warmth.

The pattern is easy to make up, provided you are careful with marking the edge of the skirt piece that adjoins the bodice, as the shape is quite weird and it is not at all intuitive which side is up. But apart from that it is pretty plain sailing. I decided early on that I didn’t want the 2 piece sleeves, and swapped them out with the sleeves from my TNT tee. That necessitated changing the armscyes to match, which is where it got a little more complicated because one of the armscyes goes across both the bodice and the skirt. But I laid out both pieces how they would go together, then overlaid the tee pattern and traced around it. Easy-peasy.

The dress turned out fine, but I don’t think it will be a favourite. That is the problem when your sewing mostly goes well, your expectations ratchet up, you get ever more picky and it is harder to be satisfied with the result. There is nothing wrong technically with this dress, nor with the style, it just doesn’t grab me. Maybe I don’t like red that much after all. But at least the wildlife seemed to like it, this bush Turkey had a good old sticky beak to see what was going on when I was taking the photos. Or maybe he was checking to see when I would be planting some more vegetables.

Below are low are a few pics styled in various ways, with a scarf or a cardi or both, and with my Marcy Tilton wide legged pants or skinny pants. The dress is a little too short in places for me to wear on its own. I don’t do minis.

And I am still having trouble with the sunlight being bright behind me on the lawn, making the foreground underexposed and I have to lighten it up in Photoshop. The lack of light makes some of the pics a bit grainy and the colours sometimes a bit over the top. In the pics where this does not happen because it is not sunny, the red of the dress is too yellow-y, exactly the sort of red I don’t like much. But you get the idea. Think cherry red.

I have never worn the pendant in the picture below, I feel it is a bit over the top and so far I haven’t been brave enough. Maybe one day…