Quatrefoils and Crosses

Yesterday was my day off, so I spent some time working on my reorganization project, then turned my eyes to sewing. I ended up working on this for twelve straight hours, and it turned out great! (Even if I do say so myself.)

Well, nearly twelve hours. I had to cut everything out, eight large pieces for the skirt and 4 pieces for each sleeve. Then I had to cut out the pieces for a different pattern out of the same fabric, then I ran to the store, and then I started working more. ^-^;;

This is fabric I purchased about a year ago when the JoAnn's in Flagstaff reopened. They had all sorts of sales (of course) and I purchased nearly a dozen yards of this lovely purple brocade for something like $3/yd. Two funny things about this:

First, there were two different bolts of fabric, both the same shade of purple, both with quatrefoils and crosses. One bolt was not enough for what the pattern called for, so I bought all of the larger one, then a few yards of the lesser. Only a year later, when I went to sew the whole thing together, did I find that they were not identical! I'm trying to figure it out how I missed it for so long! But, they're similar enough to be on the same garment, especially since the dress itself is all one style, and the sleeves the second.

  

  

This is the fabric the dress is made of.

And the sleeves are from this one.

Second, the pattern I used for this dress is McCall's #4997. I purchased it several years ago, when patterns were on their usual $1 sale. I've purchased tons of patterns this way, assuming that I'd find a use for them eventually. The dress calls for 10 3/4yd of 60" wide fabric and I purchased accordingly. This proved to be way too much, because the only measurement given was "with nap". Well my brocade doesn't have a nap, so I could switch pieces back and forth at will. I had no need to do so with the skirt, but I certainly did with the sleeves and bodice. So, in the end I had several extra yards of fabric. I decided to use that extra fabric for a yukata. More on that later.

So I'm trying to decide on eyelets up the front and on the sleeves, or frogs. I like the idea of frogs, but eyelets would allow me to change the color of the laces to match whatever under-dress I'm wearing. But then maybe metal clasps would be a good way to go. I'll need to go the the store and see what's available.