"This autumn breeze shall strip the trees
and freeze me to the bone
Why must these three sisters tease
Their lonely brother so?"
The Divine Comedy - Three Sisters
This song always gets stuck in my head at this time of year. Apparently it's a reference to Chekhov, but I have always liked it as one of three sisters who teased a lone brother mercilessly!
This is a rather shamefaced reveal of a finished object because it has taken me over a year to complete this one! My lovely mother-in-law gave me a length of this beautiful wool challis ages ago and I put it aside to make a Peony dress. After I made my floral one last November I tinkered a bit with the pattern and made another one. And the fit wasn't noticeably different and it pissed me off massively so I put it to one side unfinished and sulked for a while, and then I eventually moved on to something else. Which, on balance, was the right thing to do because I did go on to sew other lovely things that I probably would have been too discouraged to do otherwise.
I know I didn't have the heart to do a total hackjob on this Peony, which is what it would have needed to really fit properly. However, while the thought of this was enough to put me off going back to it, the truly gorgeous fabric couldn't be left as a wadder. The recent turn in the weather got me thinking about it so when I was off work with flu during the week I dug it out. Even in my slightly delirious state I could see that it was totally saveable. All that I needed to do was to hem the skirt and sort out the neckline facing! I did both of these by hand on Thursday. It was a good sick day activity and I am pretty pleased with the finished dress:
Three Sisters Peony dress - I'm wearing it here with Irregular Choice Serpintime shoes and vintage handbag, and a tired wee face courtesy of a very late night
It is a better fit - slightly - than my floral Peony dress. I wear that one a fair bit so I'm sure I will with this one, too. There's a lot to like about it. I love the sleeves. I left out the pockets again and the cummerbund, but I don't think it suffers for that. The back neckline still gapes but as this is made from a wintery fabric I'll mostly be wearing it with a cardigan so I'm not that bothered really. The really wonderful thing about this dress is the fabric, which is just gorgeous. I just love the colours and the vibrancy of the print. It's the perfect combination of colours to go with these Irregular Choice shoes, and also with some burgundy tights I have stashed away. I like to stay as colourful as I can in the colder weather.
You can see the print a bit more clearly in this photo, and my lovely burgundy shoes!
This is my second, and final, Peony. I actually gave my copy of the pattern to my friend AM in May. There are so many things I like about the pattern and both of the ones I made are pretty and comfortable dresses. It's a sweet design and you can't fault the instructions, but I kind of hated sewing both of my Peony dresses. It just seems that, for me, I'd have to make so many adjustments to get this pattern to fit just right. And then the end result wouldn't really be anything that amazing. I mean, I think this fabric is pretty amazing, but you know what I mean. I feel a bit like a cranky old grouch to even say it but for me at least, this pattern was never going to be worth the considerable amount of work to get it just right. So, no more Peony dresses for me.
I do want to get better at fitting and tailoring, but this is not the pattern for me to cut my teeth on. I'm thinking some of the projects in Gertie's book will be a good place to start - I'm considering making the wiggle dress (the one on the cover of the book) out of the pretty cotton sateen Annabelle Bumps sent to me as part of the summer sewing swap. I think it'll be just right. I haven't had much time for sewing recently so I'm really looking forward to getting stuck into a project I feel really excited about.
Now, I'm off for a wee lie-down. That tired face has only become tireder. But I'll be back soon!
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