Electric Flamingo or, The Mother's Day Dress

I made a Mother's Day dress this year because I didn't make one for Easter.  Well, that and because Project Sewn is happening.  Floral Frenzy is the name of the game this week.  Florals really are on trend right now but there's a bit of a problem.  I don't like most of them.  I have no idea what's wrong with me.  I used to love florals!  When I went to the fabric store I found lots of stuff like this:

These fabrics speak to me.  Unfortunately they say, "No, no, no, no, no!  Run!  Run far away!"  If I'm truthful (and I always am), I have to admit that some of those are quite pretty but I would hate them once they were on my body. They would look great on other people, but on me?  Not so much.  Some of the others are just straight up wretched.  That one up there that you like...that's the one I like, too. *wink, wink* I'm more drawn to florals like this:

I had pictures chosen for a collage to go here but for some reason I couldn't make it work, so here's my favorite.

Sadly, the fabric stores had nothing I liked well enough to spend money on.  I wandered the store and ended up with the laces.  My eye was immediately drawn to the neon orange lace.  Yeah...neon orange.  Something about its punch-you-in-the-face brightness attracted me.  Because it's less obnoxious than the prints. Obviously.

I call this dress "The Electric Flamingo"

I scoured that store and three other fabric stores to find a match to go under the lace.  No dice. Instead I decided to use some hot coral ponte de roma fabric from Girl Charlee for which I didn't have a specific project in mind.  Because the fabric choice is so...(can't think of an appropriate word; I blame pregnesia) I knew the pattern needed to be a bit more demure.  I had my old and waaaaaaaay out of print Vogue pattern to help with that.  Another reason I chose it was because of the flat front on the skirt.

Printed in 2003.  Old enough to be out of print but not "vintage" yet.

The description says "very loose fitting" and they weren't kidding.  I ended up taking in about six inches from the bodice and could probably have lost another three without feeling confined.  After taking in the bodice I decided to keep the fullness in the skirt, just in case.  I made a single inverted pleat at the center front to give the skirt fullness a place to go.  So much for the flat front I thought I wanted.  Actually, I prefer it with the pleat now.  I also changed the sleeves a little and the jury is still out on how I feel about them.  Because I don't like the look of knee length skirts on me, I lengthened the skirt quite a bit.  Once it as on my body it looked more mother-of-the-bride than it did springy and fresh.  To remedy that little problem I changed the neckline so you can actually see my collarbone.

It is the details that really make a project special.  Translation: I searched even more stores to find a matching trim lace or ribbon or SOMETHING to add to the dress.  I really wanted a trim lace to finish the skirt and sleeve hems.  The lace is very light so it doesn't have the weight I want to just trim it along the design line.  Let me tell you, there is nothing out there that matches.  Four fabric stores later I ended up with a coordinating satin ribbon from Hobby Lobby and a pretty little flower trim from Joann. After simply stitching them together down the center I had my sash.  I opted to make thread carriers so I could keep the trim as a true sash, separate from the rest of the dress.  That way I can let the dress out easily without worrying about how to fit the trim back on.  Hopefully the belly size and weight gain will stay under control and that will be unnecessary.

The standard bump shot

So there's my floral(ish) Mother's Day dress.  There are so many flowers on that thing that I was my own corsage.  I wore it proudly all day long, both at church and at my in-laws house.  We took all the pictures there.  My house isn't nearly so pretty.  It'll be great for the rest of the pregnancy and, when that's done, I'll turn it into a skirt so I can continue to wear it.

More flamingo-ing

And now, for your viewing pleasure, I include a video of my girls.  I dropped some 5,000 lb hints to my husband that I wanted an early ultrasound.  There has been good reason to believe this is a twin pregnancy and not knowing has been driving me nuts!  My husband caught on and we paid the $45 to get a "gender check" ultrasound from a local clinic.  I'm far enough along that they can check the gender, but I just wanted to find out if there's one baby or two.  The video below shows the reaction of the girls as I tell them about the results.  Those sweet littles of mine don't hold their feelings back.  For the record, when I ask Q-ball anything about a baby coming to our house he just says, "No."  Here's to hoping the video actually works; Blogger is giving me problems...