Sweet Arabella

Sweet Arabella is finally done. I can't believe I started this dress back in October and it's taken me two and a half months to finish it.

It turned out pretty well. I'm very pleased with the smocked sleeves and the ruffled Peter Pan collar. In fact, the Princess and I are already negotiating a fabric choice to make another similar dress.

The only thing I'm not really happy about is the smocking colors. It's the craziest thing, but even though each of the three floss colors coordinates with the fabric beautifully, individually, something about the combination of floss colors is off. The teal and the purple seem to blend together to read as a turquoise blue, and together they make the wine colored floss seem too bright. Ah, well. The dress is finished, and I learned something about choosing floss colors. The fabric that I'm thinking about using for the next version has a much brighter and simpler color scheme which will make choosing floss colors a lot easier.

My sewing mojo has returned and I've spent a very busy weekend cutting, seaming, and pleating. There will be smocking this week! In the coming weeks I will be sharing two bishop dresses, three new Temilies, a BSY, and the new high waisted skirt that McCalls just released. My brain is just swimming with ideas! And I'm expecting the new Burda and the latest issue of AS&E in the mail any day now, so hopefully the excitement and the motivation will last a long time!