Inspired by Amber and her fantastic fitness regimen (I’m Obsessed with Amber, by the way), I’ve started dancing about five times a week to tone up and get fit. I’m only going to be doing this for a month and then I’ll get back to my normal, sane dance class schedule. It feels fantastic so far but it is definitely eating into my evenings, and hence my sewing time (and oh dear, that BurdaStyle book coat still needs to get started!) Plus the hip hop classes are making me think really stupid things like, “Hey, I should sew some new sweatpants!” No, no, no, stupid.

I did manage finally finally to hem the 1950s-style sheath dress I started months ago and neglected to finish, even though it would only have take 20 minutes. The pattern is derived from my much-loved Burda 5-2008-125, which I’ve made up as designed, in Audrey fashion, and now as a simple scoop-back sheath, using a modified version of the lining pattern. Here are some early morning sleepyface photos:

As you can see, I cut the back a little too wide and a smidge too deep and it’s showing some bra strap action.  I’m going to need to some some clever little loops on the inside to keep everything hidden. Strapless undergarments and I only ever go out together very reluctantly.

The dress is made from a very vintage feeling stretch matte satin that mysteriously seems to have some cotton content to it, and it’s lined in Bemberg rayon. The zipper is handstitched as usual, and I gave another go at blindstitching the hem by machine. It’s still not blind enough compared to hand hemming in my opinion, but I guess this will come with practice.

I really need to dig through my piles and figure out what other perfectly serviceable unfinished garments are just waiting for a quick half hour of finishing. I suspect there are many. Maybe finishing them will distract me from thoughts of sweatpants…

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