I love dachshunds, old Barbara Stanwyck movies, dark chocolate and bad ideas. In no particular order. A Saturday spent in the sewist bordello with all these elements makes my chubby heart sing.

Sometimes I feel very evil scientist in my lab fusing two animals together- alligators and hippos- so I can get larger alligator bags, of course. Or a hybrid dachshund/aardvarks- for better crumb hovering under the kitchen island. All excellent ideas, as I’m sure you would agree. My ideas with fabric mixing are also way ahead of their time indeed!
This week I will show you another combo that you may think is MADNESS! MADNESS! But I have vision!

Butterick 5949 has many wonderful ideas from the envelope, so of course, I ignored all that sanity and started playing. I skipped the waistband- I had a wide belt planned to breakup my 2 competing print fabrics. I basically did view C with the skirt and little sleeveys in the same fabric and the bodice in a crepe de chine stripey material. This stripe was seriously marked down at Fabric.com and I bought it thinking I’d get inspired later. It took a very long time- like in boyfriend terms- I’d have already given up trying to save it and moved on to another! I finally had an EPIPH-TACKY! Yes. That is a term. I know because I just made it up. But we’ve all had them- the moment when you are dressing or planning an outfit and suddenly something you never would have worn together just jumps out at you like Prints Charming!
Did you catch that? Print Charming! I’m a wit, oh so, so much. Back to Butterick 5949. I have a friend that I adore- she is the best human I know. For years she dated someone that was so not her equal. But the reflected glow of her amazingness kept the partner from being a dead bulb. It worked until it was eventually revealed that the bulb was not only burnt out, but a bit crazy. Anyhoo- my point is that you can make something work if you love one print and only feature the less loved print in limited doses.
Now, here we go: I was hesitant about this pattern because the envelope picture looks so bulky – like the fabric wasn’t ironed during the making process. PR had lots of reviews and they didn’t look so lumpen, so I kept going. My plan to make the sleeves in a contrast was worrying me tho. I was afeared that this could go very football pad looking if it didn’t work. So I cut out and prepped sleeves in both fabrics. Even the lining. Unfortunately with the construction process as it was, I reached a ‘do or not do, there is no try’ Yoda the sewcialist moment. I pinned it up on Ms Holloway with the contrast and worked on the skirt while I decided. It felt ok. Not amazing. Not EPIPH-TACKY, but ok. I seek stronger emotions from my gaudiness, so I broke down and hauled the husband into the sewing room under false pretenses.
‘Hey, Mr Barnes- have you seen this highly amusing State Farm ad?’ yes, we do address each other this way , we have a very Dickensian sense of intimacy. ‘it has a talking unicorn with questions about flood insurance!’
I then nonchalantly futzed about with the dress form, trying not to be too obvious. He watched the commercial and once more questioned my taste in entertainment. Loudly. But he didn’t have any comments on the dress. He usually does. He is my barometer. So when he didn’t politely tell me that it looked like a lukewarm mess, I knew I was ok.

Here we go folks- I’m about to unleash my messterpiece! On the hanger I love this. On me- not so much. It has 2 issues that I am unhappy about- first- the poofy bodice. The model above is smirking me- she had it too- why would I think I wouldn’t?

Here’s an action shot to show how it’s an all-over issue- not just in the front near the tucks:

Honestly- I’m not dunlapping over my belt (this time) it’s the poofitude! More bothersome is the limited range of motion from the sleeves. I spend all day transcribing the gospel-like thoughts of surgeons. I’m not sure I could type in this. I’d have a ‘She Hulk shred! She Hulk bust out of tacky dress’ moment by 11:00. Not so good. But a larger sleeve would have given it a little tiny airport hangar look.

So the final short sleeve dress of the season is a clunker. But, I was ready for fall anyhoo. Now, don’t purge this pattern from your files- PR has some lovely versions-including Westy85 with 3 and   the sharp grey of MissyBelle.

A pattern just can’t be all things to all people, right? Oh, well, back to other bad ideas!

photo credits: Pattern Review, meadhawg, google images. All images remain the property of their original owners.