Friday 1 April 2016

Vogue 1353 as a costume, and a mermaid cake for added interest

You will be tired of seeing Vogue 1353 by now, but I promise that this is a different story. You see, my daughter has just turned 21.This is quite the important occasion in Australia, due, naturally, to the age of legal majority being set at 18 a mere 42 years ago (previously, it was 21, hence the traditional celebrations at this age). We had a family dinner at a lovely restaurant, but also, she had a fancy dress cocktail party for some of her friends. The cocktail part was extremely grown-up, but the rest of the party positively embraced frivolity, and dare I say it, reflected my own enthusiasm for my children's past birthday parties, with which I have often indulged my love of dressing up and playing games. (My inner 5 year old loves birthday parties)
 The theme was "Sea", which I thought was rather clever, as she had a pool party, held partly in the common area of her apartment building, which has a swimming pool.  She and her sister decorated their courtyard with blow up pool toys, fishing nets with cardboard cut out fish, and Chinese lanterns turned into jellyfish. It looked terrific,so naturally I do not have a single photo of it.

Now some other family members who attended this party were complete pikers. My husband and his parents claimed that they were on a sea cruise, and did not dress up at all, and my 13 year old son claimed that he was a swimmer, who had not yet changed into his togs. Pathetic!
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Here is a photo of my daughters in their completely purchased costumes. (Actually I think the streamers were hand sewn on to the tu-tu). Clearly, the 21 year old on the left is a gorgeous jelly-fish, and the other fearsome character bought her costume from the children's department at Target for $5. She had to wear her own shorts though, as for some reason size 10 boy's clothing does not actually fit her very well.
I did not want to be an embarassing mother, in some outre costume, but at the same time, I wanted to make an effort to work with the theme. Originally, I was thinking of a lovely tasteful print with seashells or something similar, made into a dress that I could wear again, but as it turned out, I became completely carried away at the quilting shop.
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Don't I look just like a coral reef?
I apologise to my longsuffering readers and fellow sewing enthusiasts,  it's Vogue 1353 again, this time sewn in an incredible rush within one school day. This is undoubtedly why I messed up the upper bodice pleats, sewed the zip to the wrong side when I converted the pattern to a side fastening in order to avoid pattern matching at the centre back, and also managed to sew the skirt backwards, so that it is more full at the front than at the back. Personally, I am having trouble believing that I managed to make so many mistakes in a simple dress that I had made twice already! I didn't unpick at all though :)
Despite these transgressions, and a certain related delay in leaving for Brisbane that seriously annoyed my husband, I was very pleased with my costume. It was comfortable to wear, not excessively embarrasing for my daughter, and I enjoyed being part of her theming. I might even wear it again, but maybe not to the supermarket.

I cannot resist showing you another thing that I made for the party.
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I promise to write about a different pattern next time - or maybe some knitting......


10 comments:

Summer Flies said...

Commenting backwards.... "wow, that's impressive" comment from son about cake! Ditto from me. It looks enormous.
I love your dress! absolutely able to be worn to supermarket if you wish to look super dressed up! Of course making something you have made twice before and should breeze through nearly guarantees you'll make an error... but "high five" (if I did that) for no unpicking. Of course there is no photo of the courtyard... because we'd love to see it! Happy birthday daughter 1.

LinB said...

Oh, I love it! I adore theme parties. For my own child's 21st, we threw an Orange Party ("Orange you glad you're 21?) Pretty much bought everything orange we could find, served only orange-colored food and drink, asked guests to wear orange.

Eileensews said...

Your dress is fantastic!!!!! I love it!!

Little Hunting Creek said...

I love your dress, I'd wear it anywhere. Your cake is amazing!

Paola said...

Great dress. The more I make a pattern the more likely I am to mess something up, I find! Great cake too, seems a shame to eat it.

liza jane said...

Your dress is perfect!! And the cake is pretty fantastic, too. What a great mum you are!

Fabrickated said...

I love these themed parties too. Of course, as you say, most people cop out (although your friends and family did provide some amusing and almost believable excuses), some buy an outfit from the internet or local "party" shop, some are creative at low cost (like your beautiful girls) and some - ahem - like you really push the boat out and make an outrageously appropriate outfit by hand.

I love your dress. I have the pattern too so have found the last three posts most interesting and they have encouraged me to try it. It does look very nice indeed in all its incarnations. The style is perfect for those of us with a good waistline and fuller hips.

Sharon said...

That is a serious amount of mint leaves and perfectly themed. No issues with using the same pattern, love the fabric that you chose and no one except us will know the added style details.

Gail said...

Your dress is lots of fun! Well done on the cake - I've just realised that we didn't have a cake for my eldest's daughter's 21st.

Audrey said...

I think your party dress is very fun and theme appropriate in a tasteful way. Heck I'd wear that dress to the supermarket. It looks like a border print from far away. All your versions of Vogue 1353 look great, but each is a bit different. I love the mermaid cake. Clever use of the spearmint leaves. Mermaids are a favorite of mine. I have some framed vintage advertising featuring mermaids hanging on my family room wall. And of course, some mermaid print fabric in my stash.