V1191 Kors dress sneak peek and a birthday present to me

In my last post I asked if a designer could be a genius.  The jury is still out on that one, but testing my theory I am making Vogue 1191 Michael Kors draped front knit dress for my birthday dinner.  It is Labor Day weekend here in the US, which means my birthday falls around this time.
Some years on the actual day, causing many jokes about how my mother felt when I was born, ha ha.  Never heard those before.  But actually I have always thought it was fun to have a birthday fall on a long weekend, and usually I am on vacation, so this is the first year in about fifteen that I am at home.  Which is a good thing as I am not quite up to suitcase wrangling or long plane rides.  We are set for a lovely weekend and I have plans for a dinner out with family and friends so I am sewing this dress.  
It is fun when other bloggers give a sneak peek of their projects  - Shannon of Mushywear does this very well, and she recently used this same fabric. Great minds think alike and it is interesting to see a fabric made up in totally different styles.  Here is a look at my work in progress.

That is the pattern piece pinned up behind the dress form.  With these crazy what I call mobius strip pattern pieces, I find it helpful to have the piece there to reorient myself when putting it together.
Here is the pattern envelope, I am doing one design change which is to make it a sleeveless dress as the fabric is more summer than winter and I wanted to wear it now.

My next post will be the finished dress, including how to change from long sleeve to sleeveless.  For some reason I want to write a "compare and contrast"  since I am currently fascinated by these drape and twist dresses.  I made the Donna Karan V1159 earlier this year and these two dresses have some similarities and also big differences in construction and result.  


For my birthday present to me - a couple of books for my sewing library.  They came in the mail yesterday and I spent about at least an hour with the Pattern Magic book.  Now that is genius.  There are so many things in it I would like to try, especially the Bamboo shoot bodice, however I settled on the Twist top as a first project.  Then this morning in my blog reader - Carolyn of Handmade by Carolyn who I admire so much is wearing her version of the top.  Kind of getting me interested in winter sewing! 

The second one is Pants for Real People by Palmer and Alto.  While the photos and styles in their book series may be a bit dated, the information is fantastic and I highly recommend their fitting books.  So maybe I will finally make some pants for myself.

Here is today's SunnyGal garden photo, actually taken in June.  This is my favorite Hydrangea, the big mop head type, which has retained its purple color since being planted there next to the front door.  

Happy Labor Day Weekend Sewing,  Beth