DIY: Sir the Label Dress

Made the mask too.

Oolala. That's how I feel in this dress, which I finished sewing last weekend. It is made out of a luxurious deep green linen and while the dark color and floor-length skirt make it look formal in photos I think it looks more daytime appropriate in person. (Plus you can't tell this but I'm wearing it with white sneakers.) It started, as a surprising number of things do these days, with an Instagram ad. The ad was from Sir the Label, a new-to-me Australian brand whose romantic, skin-bearing dresses instantly caught my eye. However, the dress this is based on, the Aramis, retails for $480 (oddly enough in both USD and AUD) so that wasn't going to happen. Plus, their version has no pockets (that I can discern) so I figured this was a great candidate for a DIY. 

DIY: Ulla Johnson Skirt

I also whipped up this top out of some scrap fabric, but it has since been cut up for use in other projects.

     I'm pretty darn excited because I made this skirt ::pumps fist circularly and makes a wooing noise:: This is one of the first items I've tried to make where I didn't have a pattern and was basing it on a photo. This photo, in case you are wondering:

Ulla Johnson, RTW 2020

    You'll notice that in the photo, the garment in question is a dress, whereas mine is a skirt. While the skirt came together in a relatively straightforward manner, that was not the case with the bodice. I tried to struggle through it before I figured the garment was trying to tell me something and I should stop banging my head against the wall turning what was apparently meant to be a skirt into a dress (plus, skirts are so versatile). I had purchased 5 meters of cloth, thinking that would be enough (it was not), so I barely had enough to make my first attempt at the bodice and nothing left for a do-over. Also (and I acknowledge that this is a bit of a false comparison) this skirt cost me about $20 in fabric (plus two days of my time) whereas the Ulla Johnson one is closer to $800. No doubt it is much better made and the fabric is probably nicer but still!

Confront Our History

The last few weeks have been especially horrifying, inspiring, depressing and hopeful. I think that if you are looking for anything from resources to book recommendations to organizations or BIPOC businesses to support then a quick Google search will yield more helpful results than I can provide. 

I did however want to highlight two items, both of which really resonated with me:

• The first is this 2019 NYT article, America Wasn't a Democracy Until Black Americans Made it One, by Nikole Hannah-Jones, who won a Pulitzer for her work.
• The second is a June 4, 2020 podcast from the Ezra Klein show with guest Ta-Nehisi Coates. You can find it anywhere you listen to podcasts or here. 

Have a good weekend, thanks for stopping by.