Day 3

I'm getting this in just under the wire--it's been a busy day and I should be in bed, but I'm determined to post something every day, even if it barely relates to the subject of creativity or craft.

Tonight I went to the Lighted Candle Society's annual awards banquet at the Little America with my dad because my dad is friends with two members of the board of trustees. The invite said semi-formal, and while I'm always a little unnerved by the loose interpretation of the term, I decided nevertheless to up my personal ante and wear something shiny: a black lace dress with big pink sparkly clip-on earrings that were my grandmother's.

I made the dress 8 years ago for a conference-type thing in San Francisco, which is where this post ties into the creativity theme of the blog. Granted, 8 years ago I was a little thinner, so the dress is a LITTLE too short on me now (thank goodness I was wearing a black slip and kept my legs under the table the whole night!) but it's still pretty and I think I have enough leftover lace to add to the hem without it being obvious.

I wish I could remember the pattern number. I am pretty sure it's a New Look pattern, and I'll try to get a scan of it or something to show you what it looks like. It was a pretty easy dress to make, with a cross-over v-neckline, an empire waist, and 3/4 length sleeves. For the lace one, I cut the neckline pieces, sleeves, and skirt so the hems all fell on the scalloped part of the lace. I made a bias-cut dress out of a pinkish-purple iridescent taffeta from a Vogue pattern of my sister's to wear underneath it as a lining.

It's a great dress, despite the length issue, and even if I don't have enough of that lace anymore I'm sure I can find some that matches closely enough and call it a design element instead of a stop-gap alteration... One of the women ushering the event caught me as I was going in to dinner and complimented me on my dress. She said it was not only appropriate, but also just a little sexy, because at first glance the lining looks almost nude. I laughed and said I hadn't chosen the lining for that purpose, but because I thought the fabric was pretty. She said "oh, don't apologize! I think it's great--I love your style!" I told her how I'd made it, and she said she would have to try something like it herself.

I felt completely appropriate and confident and really enjoyed my evening, not to mention the excellent salmon and fabulous chocolate fudge cake. It felt good to have a reason to wear that dress again!