Skirts and Sleeves

I admire the seamstresses who come up with one project after another, steady and without fail. Not me. I get bursts of creative energy and then long spells of apathy, and here is one now. So this post in a way is to pull my thoughts together and defeat "What's next!?!" dilemma.

The one idea that I seem to be fixated upon is a full skirt dress. I have some yellow-green polyester left from the curtains I made for my sis-in-law. (I hate the way it sounds, really- I always say when I hear about curtain to dress project: "Are we in the "Sounds of Music" or what?" But here I am blogging about some curtain fabric for the dress. Life is funny sometimes)

The colour of the fabric is very unusual, not something too many people would wear casually, so it is perfect for my colour blocking dress from 12 in 2012 list.

Anyway, the pattern for the dress is most likely to be from Burda Style 5/2011 I have already tried this pattern, but the fabric turned out to look weird. However, the shape looks good, nipping nicely around the waist, making the stomach area look super flat and quite flattering for my small bust. One adjustment though will be adding sleeves (if I have enough fabric that is).

A couple of years ago I came across a document online with a tutorial on modeling the sleeves (among other pattern manipulation techniques.) Unfortunately, I do not remember where I found it, but there are a few ideas on what you can do with the sleeves.

nice boxy sleeve

more adventurous futuristic sleeve (perfect for balancing heavier bottoms)

and one for Lady Gaga too

Ideally, due to the unusual shape of the skirt on that dress, the second sleeve cap could really work. it will require a mock version to practice on. But it could work! Plus it will cross off sleeve modeling off my 12 in 2012 list too!

Win-win!