It’s done, finished, and I’m pooped.
Not my dress - That’s been done and photographed for a week or more! I’m talking about my classroom. I’ve spent 10+ hours a day working on school prep for the last two weeks, and I’m finally out of time… which means I’m done! I have a long weekend ahead of me, and I refuse to do any work (ok, well, not more than a few hours, at least!) I’m so excited about the year ahead, and I can’t wait for some of the fun stuff I have planned. But for now: Rest!
Which of course, is code for sewing and blogging! As I said, it’s been done for a while: My Macaron-inspired Peony, aka. The Maca-ny Peo-ron!
You see, I’ve been really missing all the fun of the Colette Sewalong lately… It was so fun sewing this spring from the handbook because once we bought the book we had all five patterns ready to go. Now that the Sewalong is working through the catelogue, it’s a lot harder to justify the $20+shipping for each pattern! I didn’t buy either the Hazel or the Macaron… but darn it, I want to play along too!
So I faked it! This is my 4th Peony, and I’ve changed the pattern every time, so that by now it barely resembles the original! To get a Macaron-inspired bodice, I used the contrasting curve pieces that I drafted for my Two-Tone Sorbettos. It’s high in the front, and curves low in the back. For references, here’s a collage of all the Peony’s and contrast Sorbetto’s that I’ve made this year:
Gee, can you tell I like bright prints??? All but one of these garments was made of quilting cotton, and I have to say, I’m happy with the results! Do you sew with quilting cottons? I know it’s a big no-no for some people… but I like to think it works with some patterns!
As usual, I skipped the zipper… and I swapped out the sleeve for the Sewaholic Alma cap sleeve. (Remember I used it on the Go Anywhere dress too? I love that sleeve! And speaking of Alma’s, mine is 5 min away from being done… I can’t wait to finish it tomorrow! Love that pattern already.)
The fabric is Anna Maria Horner’s Field Poppies, which is a very unexpected combo of turquoise, lime, purple, red and brown, but somehow I love! For the contrast part, I toyed with the idea of doing a bold red, but ended up going with the same robin’s egg blue that I used as contrast in - you guessed it! - the Go Anywhere dress! I’m a big fan of repeats, what can I say?
The fabric is SO bright though that I wasn’t quite sure how to accessorize it! My photos are a bit washed out (Sorry!), but you can see that I tried it one 4 different belts… but I’m not sure any of them are a great match! Maybe with a different necklace? I like it ok unbelted though, so we’ll see how I actually end up wearing it!
Tragically, in the last 30 seconds of sewing, I took a chunk out of the back bodice with the serger! GAHHHHHHHH!
Can you see it? (Of course you can!) Right about the centre skirt seam you can see where I bodged together a fix: I patched another piece of fabric over the whole from the inside, didn’t quite line up the print properly, and then did a messy zigzag over the edges is somewhat-matching fabric. It’s pretty bad… but I won’t see it when I wear it, so who cares?
(GIGANTOR!!!!)
So there you have it: My Maca-ny Peo-ron. I love the dress… but I’m feeling strangely guilty about it all. I felt the same way when I adapted the Truffle dress into a Ginger-esque skirt: Like I’m cheating Colette and somehow letting people down. I would have bought both patterns if I could afford/justify them… but until I’m rolling in dough (in some mythical future), I’d rather spend my money on fabric than new patterns. I don’t want to annoy people in the Sewalong though (Hi Sewalong peeps!), by posting a knock-off… but then didn’t many of us learn to sew so that we could make whatever we wanted and personalize our wardrobe? My dress really doesn’t have many of the Macaron design elements: different skirt, waist, sleeves and design line! I can’t quite figure out WHY I feel so guilty, but I do.
Help me, dear sewists: What loyalty/ownership do we owe indie pattern companies? Is it ok to copy design elements from wherever you find them, or is it somehow different to copy Modcloth and Anthro than it is to recreate Colette? When drafting your own patterns, what is ok?
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