cheater cheater pumpkin eater

***as my fancy english friend says, STOP PRESS!  there is a delightful giveaway of some truly delicious retro patterns going on right now over at sew essentially.  if you don't know what to make for promaballoona, graca has you covered!  and miss graca... i do believe this puts you waaaay ahead in the running for Most Awesome Party-er.  we now resume our irregularly scheduled post.***

seriously, why pumpkin?  why not something more dishonest... like splenda?

i have many confessions to make about this dress, simplicity 1880 of the project runway line.  first off, speaking of, i did NOT see project runway last night, as we do not have lifetime.  huge boo and hiss.  i won't have a chance to see it online till SUNDAY.  weep for me.

hello slip!  i need a hot pink slip for this dress.  i like how it peeks out at the neckline... but a peek of color is ever so much more flattering than a peek of flesh tone lycra.

second confession.  you're going to be seeing a lot of these around the web today, i bet, as part of sunni's spectacular sewalong party.  i'm joining in, but i did not make this dress along with all the fabulous partygoers. nope, i'm just a brat.  i started this dress in the beginning of june, fueled by a recent viewing of punch drunk love (one of the best movies IN THE KNOWN UNIVERSE.  THE KNOWN AND UNKNOWN UNIVERSE, I TELL YOU).

i used the selvage to finish the sleeves... love the gathering there.  hey, and this is the truth! at the time of stitching i did think sunni would really enjoy the delicate gathering on this bodice.  and BOOM, she picks it for a sewalong.  dr oona von dooma, master of puppets?  maybe....

or maybe i just like to twirl a lot.

actually, i loved making this dress and  i did think about joining up to make another, but i had already stalled on completing this one-- the center front was drooping down and i needed to rip out the waist and add a snapparoo... sunni had some wonderful tips on the finishing of it all, so i used the sewalong to fuel the finish of this make.  

and another truth which is probably completely self evident: i am so. impatient.  i haz no playalong skillz!!!  let me distract you with my contrasting back yoke!  happy about that decision.  not so sure, however, about that center back seam on the skirt.  the skirt has a lovely shape, but if you're like me and you insist on making dresses out of air that need a slip (this is some sort of netting found at levine's loft), and you possess a mount crackatoa of your very own, center back seams on skirts are not your friend.

but this pattern, like every simplicity PR jammie i've tried, is indeed your friend.  don't let the envelope fool you. whenever miss joann has a ten for ten sale, i go in and grab every blue envelope that does not have a child on it. you get so many options with this line, it's like getting three patterns in every joint.  i may just read through sunni's shirtdress version and finally tackle some buttons.  because her white shirtdress is giving me the vapors.

final truth: this house is not purple.  it is a stolid colonial blue.   come on, purple is so much better.

happy weekend!