It’s a Nettie-Misu! Nettie bodice, and Tiramisu half-circle skirt. Basically, it’s a Moneta/Lady Skater copycat that fits my shape better than either of those patterns actually do. That, my friends, is the magic of sewing!
The fabric is from the recent Girl Charlee order that I did a video about. It was the one piece of fabric I was happy with… but I’m very happy with it! The bodice is lined in black jersey, like the contrast waistband. I chose the finish the neckline cleanly by sewing it to the lining, but I finished the arms with a folded band. I figured that the bands would help support the dress, and not let the weight of the skirt pull down the bodice. (To tell the truth, my first bands were accidentally cut with the grain, and ended up way to tight… I managed to cobble together scraps to make bands cut with the stretch, which turned out loose but better than before!)
Look, no gaping! One of the reasons that I wanted to try the Nettie bodice is that I’d like to make some, well, slightly sexier and more youthful dress for summer! Most of what I sew is work-wear, but I’d like to break out of that rut. I went back and forth on this one, raising the neckline then lowering it again… next time I think I’ll make it a little lower for my desired effect! I also cut out sleeves, but decided to skip them so that this would count for the Summer Sundress Sewalong!
I have to admit, I’ve got a love/hate relationship with this set of pictures. On the one hand: Ermagerd, I think I look pretty! That is not how I think of myself in real life. On the other hand, the magic is entirely down to using a 50mm lens that makes everything look washed in light, and creates shallow depth of field so that the backgrounds are softly blurred. Oh, and makeup - remembering to put on more makeup than I usually would so that it shows up as normal on camera! (For what it’s worth, none of these pictures are edited - they are straight from the camera.)
The other big trick is lighting from behind, I’d never tried standing between the camera and the light until Creating in the Gap wrote about her photo tips during Me-Made May. Here’s a photo with that same lens, but without light behind me…
Fine but certainly no magically flattering! (Incidentally, this is THE ONLY picture I got where you can see how long my skirt is!)
So to balance out how flattering the pictures are above, here’s a couple of outtakes which perfectly capture the range of expressions I make when displeased while teaching!
Four Stages of Teacher Face: (From left to right)
1. Is that kid really doing that?
2. I see you doing that.
3. Stop now.
4. You will stop that RIGHT NOW.
(Step five is me frowning my face off with lips pursed, telling you EXACTLY what bad choice you are making! In kindergarten, it’s probably something like “You are hurting ____. They said stop!” or with 10 year-olds “You are drawing on your desk. Students need to use that for years to come!”)
It’s funny to see versions of teacher-face on myself, because obviously, there’s no mirror for me to look in when I’m in the middle of class! (I did once accidentally teacher-glare at my husband when he hopped up and rolled on an Ikea cart - he stopped immediately, and confessed 5 min later that I scared him! Oops!)
I’m sure we’ve all got variations on these faces, the ones we never show to the camera or even the mirror, and certainly not on our blog! As a blogger, I take heaps of pictures, and delete the ones where I’m wonky-eyed, grimacing, double-chinned, or just generally looking crazy. I think that’s a good thing, too - it’s certainly helped my self-esteem in the past 3 years of blogging to feel like I can actually be pretty in pictures! On the other hand, life isn’t all finish garments and backlit photos, so it’s nice to keep it real.
With that, back to the magic of a good lens and some backlighting!
I like this dress, and I’ll definitely be making more!
How do you feel when you take good pictures of yourself? And do you have any “Stop that!” facial expressions that your family might recognise even better than you would yourself?
(Oh, uh… please don’t ready any of this as a request for compliments! I like myself just fine, but growing up as a unstylish chubby smart kid gave me unshakeable faith in my brain and talents over my physical charms!)
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