No crazier than usual.

First of all, if you aren't reading A Dress A Day, you probably should be, even if you don't sew. I got hooked on that blog before I had sewn a stitch; it's just a fun read. Also, both the blogger and her commenters often post images and links of beautiful, gorgeous vintage dress patterns. I've drooled over them many a time, but I've never been tempted to buy one (the ones that are for sale) because I don't know the first thing about vintage sewing and I already have a huge stash of patterns (I like to stock up when Hobby Lobby has them for 99 cents).

And then I saw this:
I think that may be, actually, the perfect dress pattern. And it's my size (or, anyway, close enough to my size that I should be able to alter it to fit). And look, it has pockets! I'm always and forever adding pockets to my dresses so that I have somewhere to stash my Chap Stick. Sooo... I bought it off the internet and it's now happily sitting in my stash. Where it will probably sit for a long time. You may notice that a) this is not a maternity dress and b)it's a wrap dress that wraps closed in the back, so there's no conceivable way to nurse a baby while wearing it. Which is okay, that gives me a lot of time to trace the pattern and fit a muslin and find the absolutely perfect fabric.

Speaking of fabric, I went to JoAnn's the other day to see if they had gotten anything new in. They had. I counted at least 20 bolts of Alexander Henry, which you may have noticed by now, is my very very favorite brand of fabric. (And I like to rub it in for my mom, because her JoAnn's never gets the good stuff. Nyah nyah and all that.) I've been toying with the idea of making the New Look wrap dress to wear after the baby is born (this dress actually opens in the front, and I like wrap dresses, they are very forgiving of post-baby figures) and I thought, What if I make it with a different fabric on the top & the bottom? I love the idea of coordinating prints (If you don't believe me, come and look at all of my scrapbook paper) but also, I don't want to look totally crazy. I consulted with my mother and she gave her blessing with the caveat that if I use a smaller print on top and a larger one on the bottom, then I won't look crazy. Or at least, no crazier than usual.

So, this is what I got: Alexander Henry 'Bangle Dots' for the top

and 'Kleo' for the bottom. (The picture doesn't do the fabric justice, by the way. Those flowers are ginormous.) And then I got a sort of mulberry red quilters' cotton for the contrast bands. I did a test layout to figure the yardages before I went to the store, and I found out I actually used less fabric by cutting it that way. The pattern calls for 3.5 yards of the main fabric and I only had to get 3 (1 for the top and 2 for the bottom) because of the way that the pieces are laid out when you're cutting. I was pretty happy about that, since I was paying $6 a yard for the fabric and I really prefer to get it for $4 or $5. So yesterday, I went in my "sewing room" and did a whole lot of cutting. Because I finally also got around to tracing the Kwik Sew maternity dress pattern I got back in... October? I should probably sew that one first, don't you think? And then because I was on a roll, I cut out the pieces for the wrap dress as well. I have it all laid out on my table so I could see if it looks crazy, and it doesn't, except for crazy hot maybe.

In other news, we've had sort of a major crisis around here. Porter has lost both of his Baseball Guys. It was weird because he had them in the living room, with the gate up and the basement door closed, and they are both gone. I mean, we turned the whole house upside down last night looking for these things, and we've seen neither hide nor ratty yarn hair of them. It's very weird. My poor son had to cry himself to sleep last night because he didn't have his necessary comfort objects. I even went to Kohls last night and bought a third Baseball Guy for him but he threw it across the room, so I guess that wasn't okay. I gave him his Swedish Chef doll from Disneyworld and he slept with that, eventually. I mean, I know it's a rite of passage and he would have had to give up the Guys eventually and all that, but still, it kind of stinks that the things just disappeared.