The 'Sam I Am' Flim-Flam-Flamenco Picnic Dress (#projectsewn wk 3: if the shoe fits)

How's that for a post title?

This week on Project Sewn the 'contestants', hang on that sounds wrong....designers who risk getting voted out and thrown to the sewing dogs.....that's what happens right? Anyway, they had to make outfits to match a favourite pair of shoes this week. And then the rest of us could sew along too.

Do check out the contestants/designers fab designs/makes and be sure to vote for your favourite!

Here's what I've made to join in the spirit of the thing.... a Dr Seuss dress for me to wear to our school's celebration of Dr Seuss's birthday next week for Read Across America.

All the teachers dress as the Cat in the Hat each year and the kids come in red, white and black (to match them) and they have a big reading picnic. Volunteers and parents can join in but, though I'm still managing to volunteer, my social anxiety and getting out the house is still pretty bad, so I might just run past to say hello.

And my favourite pair of shoes are not only appropriate but great for running away from social situations......and pretending you're the Karate Kid in.....

There's something about this dress that just makes me want to be silly. OK.....sillier than usual..... next week the challenge is creating our signature look, do you think my signature look is 'dork'?

This dress took FOREVER to make (translation: about 30 hours) because I wanted a Dr Seuss patchwork maxi dress for ages to match my shoes. And the patchwork bit takes time. Ooops, I haven't told you about the shoes yet have I?

Well, if you've known me for a while, you know I love Dr Seuss. In 2012, as part of my 52 weeks of sewing with Sew Weekly, I did a Seussical refashion (and whole post in rhyme).

And because of that, my friends clubbed together to buy me these shoes for my birthday: a pair of Dr Seuss Green Eggs and Ham converse high tops. They are so ace (the friends and the shoes). I wear them loads. The kids at school especially like them. They are very useful in conning children into thinking I'm cool.

So I needed a dress to do them justice....and I've had a whole load of Dr Seuss fabrics for years now in my Stash TARDIS from a fabric shop closing down sale. And the red and white polka dot fabric left over from my Gnome Dress.

I used Butterick 5637 view C as my pattern basis, but shortened each tier by 2" because I'm short and I wanted people to be able to see my shoes ;)

I first cut out all the pieces in left over thrift shop sheets from other projects to work as a backing fabric to 'mount' the patchwork pieces on....

Which as you could see if following me on my Instagram, took a while, but I was abley assisted by Luca Brasi....

I had one panel of larger one-off Cat in the Hat pieces that I used with other filler pieces for the bottom tier of patchwork. Then I cut other pieces into 5" x 5" squares or rectangles to suit as I went along. I didn't want it all uniform or lined up perfectly so I sort of overlapped them like bricks.

Once I hand the two long tiers formed, I spent an eternity gathering all the edges whilst watching some more of this years Oscar nominated movies (22 down now of the 57.....posts to come on my thoughts and picks in each category next week).

And then I simply made the dress per the instructions. Simples!

The Facts

Fabric: Various fabric quarters and ends of roll and a panel from the Robert Kaufmann Dr Seuss ranges (Cat in the Hat, Dr Seuss general, The Lorax, The Grinch) bought in a closing down sale....and up to now been used as bias tape and pockets from other projects. And a leftover sheet from another project....I'm actually quite well stash busting at the moment!
Pattern: Butterick 5637.
Notions: thread.
Time to complete: 30ish hours.
First worn: 20th February 2014.

Wear again? Absobloominglutely!

Total Cost: unknown, possibly $20ish?

The challenge: Project Sewn sewalong Week 2: If The Shoe Fits

OK, I'm off to watch 19 more Oscar nominated movies to reach my goal before March 2nd......and to something for next week's Project Sewn theme: my signature look. Yep, I'm going with dork.... or possibly 'loud print dress'....

PS. though I'm not actually taking part in the Project Sewn sew-along bit to win anything, (I'm just taking part because the themes are fun and I like deadline to get me moving), you can actually vote for your favourite sew-alonger project......so you might want to head over there and check them all out and vote? Possibly? That number 50 looks like fun.....wouldn't it be nice to give her a vote so she doesn't look like billy-no-mates? ;)