Once Again, to the Re-use Store

 I was very good, after dropping off the many many bags of mostly fabric to donate to the creative re-use thrift store, at not choosing a comparable amount of fabric to bring back home.

I got: 1¼ yard of black tubular rib knit that at least feels cottony; 1¼ yard 44" minty(?) green cotton; 2 3/8 yards 45" ivory that I'm now doubting is pure cotton.  Edit: Did a burn test on the ivory, it very thoroughly melted.  So.  And, since I had the candle lit, I went ahead and did a burn test on the green, and it...skeletonized?  Does it contain silk??

I was hoping to get some solid cottons in good weights for shirts, and the heavy ribbing was a nice additional find.

This place usually has a little box of vinyl samples, and I found several that should be good for doll purses.  Someday.

The red one is technically not vinyl--the plastic layer is polyurethane instead of PVC. I just thought that was neat.

I also grabbed a small package of aida cloth remnants, for whenever I finally try punch embroidery.

The bulk of my purchase, however, were 10¢ patterns.  So many 10¢ patterns.

Re-use Revisit, Part 2: Patterns All Around You, Patterns Everywhere

 No editorializing on things in this round up of the patterns I bought at the creative re-use thrift store today for 10¢ each, and, like the fabric, I did not allow myself to rethink anything--if I put it in my basket, it stayed there until check out.  You might be able to tell I've had vests and suit coats on my mind lately, with a nice find for that vague military-style marching band jacket idea I recently had, too.

I did donate 23 patterns, so bringing home 20 patterns is a net positive, right?

Restrained Craft Shopping

 A friend wanted to visit a local creative reuse thrift store, which was having a sale this weekend on cloth and  sewing machines. (The friend was hoping I could help her choose a decent used sewing machine, and she went home with a lovely, recently serviced Singer 237 that had a case, a few extra feet, and the original manual.  The car sagged noticeably when that machine was placed in the back.)

I managed to only spend about $10!

Quick Projects Yesterday: Thrift Shirt + Thrift Skirt = This Dress

So I had, at different times, thrifted these

  And in the past, I did wear them, although not necessarily together.  I realized that I probably would not wear the shirt, because it would require something with a waistband to go with it, or me making a jumper, and in a solid color, which...maybe someday...  So I looked at all the thrifted things with waistbands that I also am not currently inclined to wear and decided the fabric weight and pleats-instead-of-gathers of this would go well with the cut and fabric of the jack'o'lantern shirt.

(and then I was prepping them and noticed the name on the skirt tag...geist...ghost...so...extra appropriate, yeah?  yeah?)

Anyway.

I cut the shirt off  at about waist level, making the cut gently curved but still using the stripes as a general guide, and cut the waistband off of the skirt and sewed them together, pinning the pleats in place and stretching the skirt slightly to fit the shirt edge.  The skirt fabric is a crinkly weave with a lot of stretch (for a 100% cotton woven.)

I may only wear this one or twice a year, between the weather staying hotter longer and my general dislike of wearing orange, but how could I resist those dobby weave jack'o'lanterns?

Shrek Shirt

Happenstance found a "terrible in the way that only older screen printed fabric renderings of people can be" bit of woven Shrek yardage in a thrift store.  I didn't buy it, and I mentioned to the kiddo that evening.  He has never seen any of the Shrek movies, but, as a ten year old in 2019, he's all about the memes, so after confirming that he would indeed like to have something sewn from it--even without seeing it--I went back for it the next day.

There was just over a yard, I believe--definitely not enough to make a regular button-up shirt, since it was also absolutely directional.  Also, I wasn't sure if I wanted to put "button up shirt effort" into what might very be a phase that had passed by the time I finally made it?  So I pondered several possibilities for how to make a woven pull-over shirt and finally settled on fusing the general shape of Burda 9419 with the placket insert of Simplicity 1286

I looked at loads of instructions online for how to create and sew partial placket pieces, but my brain completely refused to understand what it was being shown, so I was very happy to rediscover this thrifted Simplicity pattern, which had been shuffled deep into the 'kid' pattern stash because the kiddo is too big for the kid sizes in this, yet still too small for the smallest adult size it offers.  Which, of course, didn't matter when all I needed was the placket guidance.

And a few weekends ago I finally got into working on it, and here it is!

Mostly.

Light coat or heavy jacket, whatever, it's finished

In a thrifted grab bag of cloth last year, there was someone's beginning of a baby blanket.  It was a big square, with a two-faced pre-quilted brown on one side and an aqua minky dot on the other side.  I picked out the stitching and used the minky as part of a jacket for me (blogged here, and, yes, I'm wearing it as I type this) and thought from the start that the brown would go into a bit of outerwear for the kiddo...which I finished today.

I knew I wanted to make something roomy, because it would probably be worn very few times each year and he has a lot of growing left--it's nice when my efforts aren't outgrown too quickly *glances at the last coat I made for him which he may already have been too large for last year--it never got cold enough to find out*

I thrifted this pattern

and had a moment of dismay when I realized the kid sizes didn't even go large enough for the size he is now (and I wanted to be good and not rely upon ease to compensate--coats need to be roomy.)  But!  The adult sizes start at pattern size 6, which is for a 30½" bust; the kiddo's current clothed chest measurement is 29.  Close enough.

...of course, measurements in the other directions were all too long, but that was OK, because I had a very limited amount of cloth to use, so I happily started folding pattern pieces shorter.  They didn't get quite short enough for the front and back to fit on the pre-quilted brown cloth piece, but that was fine because I also now had another thrift grab bag pre-quilted piece that actually coordinated so well you'd think it was intentional

And it was double faced with coordinating prints!  My print-mixing heart was joyful, buuut the kiddo wasn't so enthused about the floral side ("Flower on a coat doen't make sense.")  Not a problem.  Not gonna line this coat anyway, so some of the floral will still be visible inside.  (I considered lining it, of course--especially since I have that roll of thrifted lining in bright pale green that would match the green in the prints.  But, no--no lining for this.)

The cloth grab bag that yielded the printed pre-quilted cloth also had about a third of a yard of the dot print in regular yardage, which I used largely, 90° off grain, for facings.

I'd say things worked out pretty well

 Yeah, it kinda has that art sewing look, but it also kinda has that fashionable moving blanket look, so it balances.
 

 

I didn't have a zipper in the right length that matched anything perfectly (no I was not going to cut down the brown zipper with metal teeth, thanks) so I went with a coordinating color.  Any color that's not in the main print is a 'coordinate' right?

 And, yes, the zipper not being as long as the front was an intentional choice.  Really.


The way the top stitching zig zags past itself like that was something I'd first done around the pockets

because I wanted to top stitch beside the pockets, but not all the way up the side seams.  That part wasn't decided upon until I was actually sewing, so...yeah, more my usual "improvisational" work.

The improv on the sleeve contrast was at my usual level, too--that is, vaguely aware of what needed to be done and thinking I was doing it right and I didn't and I made it work anyway.  More or less.

It's a fairly smooth sleeve cap, honest.

 

 I did think of maybe some sort of appliqué on the back...and front...and sleeve...but I decided it's OK to be plain.  Sometimes.

And the unlined inside is a mess

but it's a completed mess. (Maybe you can see where I tried encasing some seam allowances in bias tape?  Yeah, didn't do much of that overall.)  I had just enough--after a bit of piecing--of the unquilted print to face the bottom edge, and also had a piece of the quilted cloth that I picked the quilting out if (which was easier than expected) and the sleeve hems are faced with the floral print.

May it fit him for years to come, and may there be enough cold days to actually use it...

Is it science fiction

I have sewn a few human-size things since the last post, but I probably won't blog about them because they all made me grumpy for various reasons.  So.

My weekly thrift store visit last week didn't find any interesting toys or any interesting yard goods, and this combined to focus my attention on the big box (like, 4'x4'x4' big) bearing a sign that indicated it was filled with linens that were to be purchased by filling a big bag for $9.99.

Well.

I dug around and stuffed a bag very full and ended up with 34 items, handkerchiefs and cloth napkins and place mats and pillow cases and curtains and tablecloths and bed sheets and a few small blankets.  Everything was chosen with the idea of using it to make other things, starting with the sheets, because I've been pondering making patchwork blanket tops again, and sheets are great for backing on the quilts I'll probably never actually finish making from those.

The first thing I made, though, involved the roughly quilted shiny purple bit seen here

which was a small blanket and just enough to make this

because sometimes you just need to make something that would look right on a background character in a generic sci fi setting, y'know?

sserD neewollaH ysaE

I recently received a very generous box of doll and sewing items (thanks again, Susan!), which included some Halloween print cloth--hot pink Halloween print!  With happy little bats!  And neon green letter outlines!  Outlining the word Halloween!  The word Halloween that was printed backwards!

Wait what.

Yep yep, the word Halloween was printed backwards on the entirety of the cloth, while everything on the selvedge was not printed backwards.  Huh...OK...so...um...

My first thought was to use it to make a skirt (there was a meter of it, having come from metric-wielding Canada) and take mirror selfies so the print would be seen in the right direction, but that would still leave it backwards in real life.  Hmm.

Then I remembered the shirt(s) Peter of Male Pattern Boldness made with the print on the inside, and I decided to follow that example.  Yes, the colors are muted, but, given how bright the print was, it's still not exactly pastel...

Late August Thrift Cloth

So I've been putting little videos on YouTube with the intention of documenting doll things I've found and done, but, when it comes to reporting thrift finds, I can't help but want to show off the sewy stuff I find, too, and I brought home a nice handful of cloth this week, most of which were featured in the latest video (that still is such a weird thing to think about in reference to me.)  But, since me waving cloth around in a video isn't the best way to show off the cloth, and since anyone who might be here for the sewing, with no interest in the dolls, probably would like to see the cloth without enduring the dolly natter, I'm posting pictures of the cloth here.

Starting, as shouldn't be surprising given the directions my brain goes, with cloth that's not in the video at all.

Just a little thrift

Ventured to the out-of-the-way Goodwill yesterday, was confronted with a bin full of 49¢ patterns, managed to constrain myself to only four.

Large Bag and Big Bag

I forgot to post about it here, but, a few days after my birthday, I was able to go a'thriftin' on my own while Husband watched the kiddo, which meant I could take as much time as I wanted to look around without a certain little someone exceeding his boredom threshold.

I also wanted to stop in JoAnn, too, to see if I could find any cloth to make a pencil bag for the kiddo (at school this year, they're supposed to use large zip bags instead of pencil boxes, and, hey, I can make a zip bag...)  He'd wanted a print with as much BB-8 as possible, which I kind of found, and I also picked up a Halloween eyeball print that I thought would work well for doll clothes.  When I got back and asked him if he wanted to combine any other prints with the Star Wars print, he said, yes, he wanted the eyeball print.  Well...OK, then!

I picked out the zipper (because I still have a lot of these yellow zippers) and lining (because I wanted to make sure it would be bright enough inside that things wouldn't get lost in shadowy corners.)  He's happy.

But!  The bigger find was in the Goodwill--which is usually a relatively disappointing Goodwill, and seemed like it was going to be just as disappointing this time, yielding only two dolls (granted, one was a Marin Chiclana guy, something I'd wanted for a while), one piece of cloth, and a bag full of perler beads and small pegboards...and holes.  It was while I was chasing down escaped perler beads that I noticed the big bedding bag that was full of sewing patterns and marked $7.99.  It was held closed with a cable tie through the two zipper pulls, so there was no possibility of surreptitiously opening it up and digging around to see if anything was worthwhile, and, hooboy, was what was visible on the outside...not worth it.  So much late '80s/early '90s blandness.  Still, if there were eight patterns I liked, I could consider it to be breaking even...and...this was supposed to be silly birthday shopping,  stop trying to be reasonable, Self.  So I picked up the last perler beads I could see and dragged the...um...delightfully heavy bag of patterns to the register.  The nice customer ahead of me put it on the counter for me, expressing (possibly) a bit of appreciation for the find.

After I got home and put everything else away, I parked myself on the living room floor, snipped the cable tie, and dove in.

So.  Yeah.  When you get a grab bag that ends up having 120+ patterns, you're probably going to find plenty that look worthwhile, no matter how many 1980s beginner patterns or early 1990s fancy jumpsuits patterns (for girls and women) or curtains patterns or indie quilted vest patterns there are.  There were even a few men's patterns in Husband's size range, and kids/boys patterns for the kiddo (whose foot is visible here, yes), and a lot of patterns in sizes suitable for some of my friends.

I'm happy with what I got from this, although I'm now out of room in the file drawers where I keep my patterns, and I'm unsure of what to do with the giant stack of patterns left that I have no use for.  Still, definitely worth the $8.

I have a 1982 Laura Ashley shirt pattern picked out (and ironed flat) for my next project--hope to get back here soon with that!

Sing the praises of pants

Or, at least, of Kwik Sew 2544, revisited in denim with lime green top stitching and vague memories of what needed to be corrected from the last time I made this pattern.

Pants!

...for the kiddo

Thrifted pattern, smallest size is still too big, but, hey, it's a pattern for boys kids that isn't designed like an afterthought.  It's also from 1997, and, I'll be honest: I can't really tell if it's a truly timeless design, or if the fact that I remember fashion in 1997 is interfering with my ability to judge how out of date this might be.  (I would make a comment about Zubaz, but no-one would've been caught dead wearing loud patterns or eye-searing colors in 1997, pfft.) ((So  also won't make a comment about how it's entirely possible the Big 3 pattern companies may have been offering Zubaz-approximate patterns in 1997.  Nope.  Not gonna make that comment.))

Whoever had owned this before had used it, but...as a base for adult-size pants?  The pieces that were cut were cut beyond the largest size lines, with notebook paper extensions.  I trimmed the pieces down to the largest size, and cut the fabric in smallest.

I also combined views, using the false fly of view A with the cargo pockets of view B--not because I have any problems with zippers, or because I lacked appropriate zippers, but because the kiddo never uses the zippers in the jeans he has, instead choosing to shimmy in and out of them while they're completely closed.

Also, the pants legs really are the same length.  Really.

My curves need work, although the topstitching isn't as dire as I expected.  (...do..do I have a topstitching addiction?  I...might.)  I happened to have a perfect match thread (gifted) for this cloth (thrifted), but not a lot of it left, so I used black thread in the bobbin for the topstitching and black thread in both for the plain seams.  I didn't run out of the gray, so that was good! (Will probably use the rest for gray and black doll clothes.)

Decided to use Velcro instead of buttons on the pockets because I had the idea that it wouldn't use as much thread as button holes.  Not sure, in retrospect, if that's true, but I also didn't have any buttons that seemed appropriate for this, so I stand by this decision.

Since he's smaller than the pattern, I increased the sizes of a few seam allowances (which...it's KwikSew, so the seam allowances are only ¼" anyway), and used a smaller length of elastic in the back. The kiddo hasn't tried these on yet, because it's Saturday and it takes a lot to get him out of his pajamas on a Saturday.  We'll find out eventually if these fit...

Vingt serviettes rayées

Once upon a time, I read a list of money saving tips that mostly made me roll my eyes--except for the suggestion of using...nay...making cloth napkins.  So I cut a bunch of 9 inch-ish squares from some weird calicoes I'd bought and regretted, serged the edges, and happily used those for a few years before thrifting nearly a dozen much prettier "real" cloth napkins (that had obviously never been used--I'll thrift a lotta things, but...not used napkins...)  After five and a half years, those napkins aren't so pretty any more. (Holes.  They have holes, lots of holes, and frayed edges.  I'm not being needlessly picky about light wear.)  So I decided to make new napkins.

I'd thrifted some yarn-dyed red striped twill that was trying to pretend it was ticking.  The red had already bled a bit by the time I got it, so I laundered it again in hot water and things didn't seem to get worse, so I...eventually...started snipping and ripping into squares.  Well...almost-squares.  The finished size is 11½" x 12½", because I don't like big flappy napkins, and because I was trying to get as many as possible from the yardage I had.  I ended up with 20.

I looked at the various methods for making mitered corners--lovely as they are, I really didn't want to fold--press--fold again--press again--unfold--trim diagonally--fold again--stitch--flip--press x 80.  The 'fake' mitered corner method seemed to have almost as many steps, and Nancy Zieman's super-cheaty method turned out not to be at all suitable for the cloth I was using.

So I just folded and folded again.  Here's a random corner of a random napkin, and it's not too atrocious

Well OK yes the stripes don't line up.  I didn't take the time to straighten the grain of these, because I wanted the project to be done more than I wanted it to be beautiful.

That happens.

That happens a lot.

But now I have 20 new napkins that actually fit the vague color scheme* I have for the kitchen and made from cloth I paid 99¢ for and the project is done so things're good.

Here's to going another five years before needing to think about napkins again.

*It's red-green-blue.  I said it was vague.

Thriftin' Again

Since it's a Sunday, meaning Husband is home to watch The Child, and it happens to be my birthday, I decided I'd trek solo to some Goodwill stores today.

The first store I visited didn't turn up anything even vaguely tempting--yesterday was the "July 4th cancelled the regular Half Off Saturday so we're doing Half Off Saturday on the 11th" day at area Goodwill stores, and the stock levels in that Goodwill reflected this.  I wasn't there even 10 minutes before I set out for the other, closer Goodwill.

It was considerably better.

I hadn't been thrifting for a while, because The Child doesn't have the patience for it anymore, and I respect that. (Summer break ends in a few weeks, so I can get back to thrifting more often, if I want...which...I'm trying to convince myself I don't want, because it's not like I lack for stuff...  Anyway.)  I picked up several color-of-the-week fabrics, some of which I might have purchased earlier at 'full' price if I'd been in the store then.  Maybe.

Top is one of the half-price selections.  I knew there was a lot, and had the idea that it might be nice in a dress with an excessively full skirt.  There's cotton involved, although I can't tell if the slightly oily hand is from polyester content or from the heavy ink.  It's 44" wide, and as I was measuring the length, I found an attached tag with a handwritten note of "8 3/8  $1.99."  The length ended up being more like 9¼ yards, though, and I paid $4 for all of it, so...yeah.

Middle is cotton, 42" wide and 3 5/8 yards long.  It was marked $1.99, which seemed low for the way that store prices cloth--I discovered the stains after I got home.  Ah.  I'd been thinking I would make a shirt from this, so there was plenty of room to work around the stains, but I doused them with stain release before throwing the piece in the washing machine.  No stains left when it came out!  (I've seen many pieces of thrift store yardgoods with stains in the middle.  My imagination has decided that they were all used for bake sale tablecloths.)

Bottom is a yarn-dyed cotton plaid with a slight nap (not a full-blown flannel.  I think I'm the only person who's not a huge fan of flannel.)  56" wide by 2¼ yards long, was half price at $1.50

The other yarn-dyed cotton plaid is a set of colors that can't decide if they're royal blue and taupe or dark purple and pale green.  At 1 1/8 yards of 56" for $1 (another color-of-the-week cloth) I don't mind the ambiguity.

Below that is just over a yard of a 60" wool plaid, which might become a winter jacket for the kiddo.  Maybe.

Next is another half-price cut, $1.50 for 2 5/8 yards of a 60" polyester lining fabric with a fine yarn-dyed stripe.  It's a bit heavier than the lining fabric I'm used to.  If I ever make that chintz floral print motorcycle jacket that's been percolating in my mind, this'll go inside.

The solid yellow cotton and the blue cotton blend (I really wanna say it has nylon in it) were purchased because I have the idea to make a Fallout Vault Suit for The Child (shh, don't tell him--it's a surprise.)  I had debated going to JoAnn Fabric today specifically to buy stuff for that project, but the Goodwill in that direction is usually disappointing, and, y'know, there was always the possibility I might find some suitable cloth in Goodwill...  Yeah.  They're both about 2 5/8 yards long, with the yellow being 45" and the blue being 60"--more than needed for both, but for about $5 combined, that's OK.

And then there's the toy print.

The fabulously off toy print.

It's a slightly coarse cotton, which I expect to feel a lot softer after it's been washed and dried (which it's doing right now.)  At 44" wide and about 43" long, I'm envisioning it in a skirt with a wide border of a plain pink cotton at the hem.  I don't have any plain pink cotton, much less in that odd shade of pink, so that will require a further purchase...although...I wonder if I could bleach that intense salmon I have (it's a similar coarse cotton, too...hmm...)

So.  Nine cuts of cloth, most of which I have Actual Ideas about, totaling 26 3/8 yards, plus a small tin, two T-shirts, two dolls, a Lego Technics set (still in it's screamingly-late 1990s box--I didn't know that Technics pieces were ever made in purple and teal...), plus tax for a bit over $25.  My friend M says I have Magical Thrifting Powers.  I'll admit it, I'm proud.

But now I have more to sew...

Little Refreshes

So, Tumblr user FallenWithStyle posted a picture of her adorable cat flopped on her ironing board, and I noticed that we have the same iron, which led to follow up pictures of the fortune cookie slips she taped to the iron (no, really, it makes complete sense), which led me to decide that it would be fun to put stickers on my iron.  Which I did today.

And then I decided that, if I wanted to take pictures of this iron in its native habitat, then I really should make a new ironing board cover .  The cover I'd been using was not only stained, but it also didn't fit with my current aesthetic mode and it was just a pillowcase sloppily safety-pinned in place, anyway.  Heh.  So I cut it off in a way that could be used as a pattern and improvised my way into a new, neutral, elasticized replacement with which I'm very happy.  (No pictures of just the cover, though.  That seemed a bit too boring even for me.)

Then, since I had the stickers out, it seemed like a good idea to replace some of the worn and faded old stickers on my serger.  I had, once upon a time, thought about removing all of the stickers, but they've been on so long that the bare plastic is more or less its original color where they were and yellowed where they weren't.  So, hey, since it's splotchy anyway, might as well add more stickers, right?

I'm still working on removing dried paper and adhesive residue where one sticker wrapped around a corner...and then probably a lot more stickers that aren't visible here, because I've learned that paper stickers don't always hold up well--clear plastic and holographic foil stickers are the way to go. *nods*

As long as I was taking a picture of the serger, might as well take a picture of the lockstitch machine.

I thrifted this machine almost three years ago and still adore it.  The bobbin area is very quiet--I tend to think it's out of thread when it's not.  (The noisiest part of it is the badly-designed-attachment of the plate on the handwheel side, which wants to rattle/buzz alarmingly at certain speeds.  That was solved by strategic application of a length of washi tape.)  When the bobbin does start to get noisy, that means it's time to clean out the lint...

And, finally, I took a picture of this just 'cause

It's probably one of my favorite sewing gadgety things.  Does anyone else have one of these?

Stopping by with some more cloth

Popped into a Goodwill quickly yesterday, convinced myself to get these

Yardages and detail pics under the cut.

Sewing Vapor

Well, vapor print.  Well, no, actually, it's a marbleized kinda print.

Anyway.

I used Simplicity 3263 from 1950, view 3, which is the same thing I used for the bodice on the last dress I made.

 This time I made it as a shirt and followed the directions.  Mostly.

Some more new (to me) cloth

Had a chance to make a child-free stop in Goodwill today, came home with these

Have I mentioned that I like wax cloth?  I like wax cloth.  So I couldn't resist this little piece, 30" of 45" wide, in black and purple (and...ecru...), for 99¢.  It will be perfect for a skirt, since the border is on both edges; just need to decide between skirt-alone or skirt-on-dress, with probably a black bodice.

The center piece is 45" wide by 40" long--although I suspect it may technically be one meter long?--and cost $1.99 but I didn't have to try too hard to convince myself to buy it because, eee, it's a sheer brocade

Again, not a lot there, but enough for a skirt overlay, at least.  Not sure what fibers are involved, but do think it's highly likely to have been made in India--there were a few saris hanging with the cloth, too. (This Goodwill often puts saris with cloth, not sure if it's because they don't realize they're not 'just' cloth, or if they have no designated place to put saris, so, meh, might as well put 'em there. They always seem to sell fast.)

Lat piece of cloth is just a bit over 2 yards of 45", very polyestery (and crinkle texturey), and was color of the week, which meant that no-one had bought it for the previous four weeks (I haven't been in this Goodwill for a while, because the kiddo has lost his enthusiasm for going--there's no Minecraft playin' there...) so I took pity on got it for 99¢.  Not sure what I'll do with it, not sure about the shades of green, not sure if it's as vintage as it seems, but it is still neat-o, in its scribbly horse,  drip-dry way.

Franken Pattern that probably didn't actually need to be cobbled together

Since the 1990s, I've vaguely been searching for a simple sleeveless bodice pattern to use for dresses.  There are always scads of things like it offered by the major pattern companies, but, the few I tried, I just...didn't like.

Last year, I got a big bunch of vintage patterns, including Advance 8984.  The first time I used the pattern, I really liked the fit of the bodice, except for the way the arm openings weren't open enough and felt uncomfortable.  So, next time I made it, I enlarged the front opening a bit and all was well.

Since I haven't been motivated to sew anything for me lately (as opposed to sewing doll stuff, which I've been doing a'plenty), I decided I should just make something, and that using the Advance 8984 bodice might be a good start...but...did I really want that many dresses with the distinct "they don't really look like the pattern envelope illustration" cap sleeves?  Um...no.  No I didn't.

So I delved into the stash, pulled out Simplicity 3263, and started tracing bodice from the Advance pattern and the neckline from view 4 of the Simplicity pattern.  Like I said, nothing revolutionary, and I might have a pattern in my stash that has the features I was looking for, but...well...if a pattern's not already cut, my enthusiasm for dealing it declines immensely.  All that tissue paper can be overwhelming...

Anyway.

I used that really loud heart print I thrifted a few months ago, and a bit of a different print for the facings, since there wasn't much left of the heart print after cutting the bodice and skirt pieces.  When it came to cutting the fusible interfacing, I suddenly decided that this dress wasn't worth using up a lot of resources so I pieced the interfacing, like this

Once it's ironed in place, it works like a single piece.

I set the zipper into the left side seam.  It can be tricky to take off side-zip dresses, but it's nice, I think, to have less overall zipper length to deal with than with a back zip...and the zipper isn't so prominent, so the stitching doesn't need to be perfect. (Not that my zipper stitching is ever perfect, but...um...I don't have to feel so self-conscious about it...)  I used to have a big problem getting the waist seams line up when inserting a zipper that has to be open to be sewn like this, but I eventually figured out that I could pin the zipper, closed, to one side, then make a quick thread tack to the other side of the zipper tape showing where the waist seam should be.  That way, when the zipper is open, I still know where the waist seam should be.

(It really was marking the right place, I promise.) ((And this is the kind of thing that's probably all over the place, but I never happened to have seen...))

So, when everything was finished, I had this

Basic, but should be a good stashbuster.  (Side thought:  Is this a skater dress?  Just because I've been trying to get a pattern like this since the 1990s, and got here by mashing up two patterns from 1960, doesn't mean it doesn't qualify as a skater dress.  Do I want it to be a skater dress?  I'm so confused.)

A dress like this is entirely suitable for someone approaching her 40th birthday.