Grrrr....

I hate it when this happens. Yes, I know I'm showing you a ugly picture, taken with the aid of a cell phone picture and a dirty mirror but it makes the point.

This is my lovely new orange skirt. Ever since I made it, I've loved the look, the fit everything (except the slightly restricting hemline).
Yesterday, I washed it. I was a bit alarmed when I took it out of the washing machine and hung it on the line to dry. The lining was longer than the skirt. I reassured myself that some fabrics behave weirdly when they're wet. Surely, drying and ironing would fix this?

I ironed the skirt this morning. That helped a bit but, as you can see, not enough. It shrunk. Mostly in length although I think it got a bit tighter as well.

And this time I really think it shouldn't have happened. Three years ago, when I had just bought this fabric, I made a cute little skirt without pre-treating it in any way (I know many of you may pre-wash all fabrics but my pattern making teacher always taught me it's unnecessary for most and sometimes even causes grain line problems). It was lovely but it shrunk to an unwearable degree in its first laundry cycle. 
So, when I made this new orange skirt, I took care to pre-wash the fabric. Twice, at 40 degrees, knowing that I wash normal clothes a 30. And then, I made my new skirt. That should have worked but it didn't.

It's not even the first time this has happened to me this year (although it has hardly ever happened before. Only with two pieces of jersey which hadn't been washed before). My self-drafted green crepe 1930's style dress underwent the same fate....
That fabric was pre-treated as well, but shrunk anyway. About equally in length and width, in that case. I can still get into it but it's snug now. It should still be wearable if I re-set the zipper (which now has a strange bulge because it didn't shrink).  
I hated that little incident because this was one of my 'holy grail' fabrics and I had agonized endlessly over what to make of it. On the other hand, it was less bad because despite all the hard work, I never really loved that dress and didn't wear it a lot. I regret to say this about such a lovely fabric but this dress won't really be missed.
That's why I despise the fate of my skirt even more. This was a much cheaper fabric and a quicker make but I loved that skirt. I kept thinking of new combinations to wear it in. It was all set to be one of my most eye-catching and hard-working separates. 
I haven't decided what to do now. The skirt is still on my ironing board in the sewing room, mocking me. I could just hem that lining a bit shorter, the zipper doesn't look bad and the fit is a bit more snug but not really anything to worry about... BUT this was made to be my perfect-fitting narrow skirt and I loved it as such. I don't think I want an OK parody of it. I think I still have enough fabric left to make it again. I could do that and have it dry-cleaned in the future... 

Ms Morticia walks again??

Nostalgia can be a good thing. Or a bad thing. From the moment I decided to use the pinstripe linen for (among other things) a partly bias-cut dress, this appeared in my mind's eye.

I've just added this technical drawing to show you why Dora's excellent suggestion of cutting off the flounce and making it a knee-length dress wouldn't work. It's no where near knee-length at the front.

I would have loved this SO much, somewhere between 5 and 10 years ago, when I was a bit of a goth. But I made it now, when I'm mostly into wearable shape-experiments and retro dressing...

There are undeniable good things about this dress. First of all, it was my first full body pattern for bias cut (I've done a skirt and a waist panel before, but with both of those, you avoid the hardest bits of fitting) and with some tweaks, I got it mostly right. I don't think it's visible in the pictures, but the stripes form perfect chevrons along the center front and back seams. I just couldn't get them to match along the sides as well. The waist-to-hip curves are too different.

I could improve on it a little bit by taking in the side seams at the very top by between 0.5 and 1 cm, but there was just no way I could see that before finishing the top edge. And to be honest, I don't feel like unpicking all of that (which I would have to do to make that alteration). It might even itself after laundry and pressing. By the way, I think that edge looks rather nice:

So, all in all not a bad effort. It just doesn't really feel like.. eh... me. Wearing this doesn't particularly make me feel happy or pretty. It doesn't exactly make feel ugly but you know, sometimes, if you're having a bad day, changing into a great, favorite dress can just make that little difference which makes you smile again... At least, I can have that. With this dress, I'm afraid it could be to opposite.

It has something to do with the colour but at least as much with the shape. I've got black summer clothes which I'm totally happy with, but this is just all over... and I'm really loving my full skirts... and maybe I just don't like long skirts so much anymore... certainly for summer...

It feels a bit like a waste of fabric. Which, by the way, is rather nice: a good weight and texture, presses well, doesn't crease so much... I might even buy more of it, so I can ignore the existance of this dress, which took about 1.5 m of each. And maybe I shouldn't. I'm just too good at expanding my stash.

I'm considering what to do with the dress. I might give it to a friend who stuck with that slightly goth style a bit more and has a fairly similar size. It's not bad, I just don't enjoy it.

Am I paranoid?

Over on Burdastyle, there's a lot of confusion on the upcoming, so far unanounced, merger between Burdastyle and Burdafashion. Like a lot of people, I'm not really happy with that. I've chosen to be active on Burdastyle because I liked the people and notion of having a fairly open platform on which the users have a lot of influence. I have to say Burdastyle has become less likable to me recently, for various reasons, but that aside.

Even though the news has only just been announced on Burdastyle in a post by the forum moderator, there's already a Burda WOF magazine in the shops with 'burdastyle.com' on the cover with the title.

Going through it I got a bit of a shock. The pictures you see with this post are my creations from last winter. I posted these pictures as 'creations' on Burdastyle back then. The technical drawings are from the current issue of Burda WOF.

Now, I know originality is a very difficult concept in fashion and I know the designs are quite classic. I actually based the dress on a Dior W 08 dress which I had seen in a magazine. That dress however, had a very eye catching detail (like a square bow, if that tells you anything) at the front waist, which I didn't add. So Burda's dress, which doesn't have the slanted waist darts of those two, looks more like mine than like the Dior.

I don't know what to make of this. It's very likely that it's all just a coincidence. There are several details which are different. That makes it more likely these patterns aren't copies but it also means that, as rights to fashion design go, I couldn't even claim these designs were mine even if I would be absolutely certain about it.

The sad thing is, I'd be delighted if Burda wanted to use any of my designs. As a struggling starter in design, pattern- and sample making and made to measure, what would be better for me? I wouldn't expect to get a lot of money for it either, just getting my name out would be great already (and if they'd have a job for me, well...;)

I'll stop whining now, I guess it's not worth it. I'm of to make a shirt for my boyfriend!