A winning dress, a losing show

I think I may have a new favorite pattern, Simplicity 4528. It’s a pretty simple dress, but the neckline has a nice line to it and the pockets have this great scalloped detail that gives an otherwise basic dress a lot of style. I finished it a few weeks ago but last weekend I was out of town to be in my friend’s wedding (yes, the one I made the dress for) and work has been really busy so I haven’t had a chance to write up a post about this until today.

I was really on the fence about this fabric as I have sworn off light colors and most floral prints after realizing they look awful on me, but there was something about the color combination and geometric nature of the print that I couldn’t resist. Plus, with all the crappy weather we’ve been having this Spring, I was hoping to force Summer’s hand by dressing for hot days and festive picnics. That totally works, right?

The pattern envelope was a little bit trashed, so the drawings came to me headless, which seemed appropriate since I always crop my own head out of photos I post on here. I don’t have time to dress up all fancy and do cheeky photo shoots in my dresses, so I’m generally sparing you (and me) the horror of my bedraggled, tired face after a long day at work or on a sloppy weekend after sewing for hours.

Ironically, I’m including my head in the photo below. I ended up wearing this dress out the night after I finished it. Omar Romero was playing at The Knockout and since we hadn’t seen him since he played Vegas a few years ago, we put on our glad rags and dragged our old suburban asses out into the city for the night. Unfortunately, we were running late so I took this photo at the end of the night, after I had wrinkled it from a long night of sitting at the bar. And I mean a long night.

I’m not sure if it was The Knockout or the band’s choice, but they didn’t start playing until about 11:30 PM. Now, I know I just outed myself as an old fart from the suburbs, but even the young, spry urban folks there that night looked tired and annoyed by the time they went on. People started leaving only a few songs into their set and those that stayed seemed so over the anticipation that the crowd was completely flat. It was pretty depressing. After a few of our friends only lasted through a couple of songs, we left as well, only 20 minutes into their set.

I don’t know if this is a typical example of the nightlife in SF these days, but it certainly wouldn’t create any enthusiasm for bands or people to come out — or bars to keep booking shows. This seemed like some kind of death knell for rockabilly shows in SF. Here’s Mr. Moe, sitting at the bar, waiting in vain.

The dress, by comparison, was a much greater success. I used some contrasting red fabric to line the pockets so it created a piping effect on the pocket edges. The pattern called for extra ease on the pockets so they popped out from the dress in a fun way. This makes ironing them a little tricky, but the added style is worth it.

Also, possibly best of all, I was finally able to use the orange swirl buttons that I’ve had for over a year and never found the right project for. These look vintage but I actually got them at Joann’s. Brand new, chain-store buttons. The only drawback is they don’t have them in multiple colors. But maybe that’s for the best, as I’d end up using them on everything because I love them so much.

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