Back in the Saddle

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.......yes, Key West is my happy place.  It's crazy goofy, way out in the middle of the ocean, full of chickens and iguana and I love it.  I walk or ride my bike everywhere...in fact, until I got back to Michigan at the beginning of February, I hadn't been in a car for a month.  The pace is so much different when you can only go as fast as your own body can take you.  So I can't say that "I'm glad to be back in the cold, wintery north," but here I am.  And I did start to miss my sewing room by the end of the month. 

I have been sewing like crazy since I got back, but everything I'm working on is for an upcoming Threads article and I can't share...yet.  I'll let you know.  I did spend time with my stash trolling around for fabrics that would work for the Threads things, since going out to the fabric store hasn't been an option...yes, I have been snowed in.  I turned up lots of pieces that I hadn't seen in a while and also took the opportunity to do a bit of thinning.  There are still way too many lengths of fabric that I seem to need to hang onto even though I know I will never, ever sew them up.  I think I need to wait for a day when I am in a really bad mood and then start pitching!!!!!  Most of the time I get all sentimental and just refold stuff and put it back in the boxes.  *sigh*

One of the pieces I rediscovered was a silk panel print by Hale Bob.  The fabrics are kind of wild and have a definite Boho vibe.  I decided I would either make it up or pass it on....

I tried a few different options on my dress form...

A simple sheath type dress.  Using the panel asymmetrically...

Some kind of wrap skirt paying no attention whatsoever to the pattern...

Gather it up into something....?

As I played around with the fabric I realized why it was probably sent off to a fabric "jobber" and ended up on the remnant table of my local fabric store.  First of all the panels were not printed true to grain....

Second, the print was not centered on the fabric...matching the centers of the panels left several inches dangling on both sides....

...the idea of passing it along was starting to sound like the best strategy!

I hung the piece up on the wall and stared at it for a bit.  Seeing it in one big piece I realized that the print was basically a T-shaped garment waiting to happen.  So I went with it.

I had two complete panels, so I cut them apart and used one for the front and the other for the back.  When I sewed the shoulder seam the off-grain printing really showed up.

The worst bunch of folds and creases was right in the center, of course.  I decided I would just make that the neck opening and cut the whole mess right out of the middle!

I actually had several colors of cotton jersey that would have worked for a neckband...

I chose the umber color.

It really is a big ol' "T"!   It doesn't look like much hanging on the dress form, but it feels amazing to wear!  So drapy and swishy.  The perfect end-of-a-summer-beach-day dress.  I'm pretty sure if I had tried to do anything more complicated I would have thrown in the towel.  The off-grain stripes just about drove me over the edge!  The lack of structure makes it hard to see, so I think it will work.  I used a piece that I trimmed from the hem to make a tie, it was like sewing a mobius strip!  But once I tied it around the middle, it was fine.  

I am calling this my "Back of a Galloping Horse" dress!  My friend A says, "If you can't see it from the back of a galloping horse, it's fine!"  And so it is....

Harry Truman posing at the Hemingway House in Key West! 
Check out those huge paws!