Homecoming 2012 - Preliminaries

I count myself lucky that I have a 16 year old who actually wants me to sew for her and is even proud to wear home made special occasion dresses outside the house!  I usually get about halfway into the project and decide that it would have been easier to just go buy something.  But in the end, it's a great mother-daughter experience and I'm happy that she wants to include me in the process. 

This year, she has decided that she wants me to make McCall's 6460, view C:

It's EASY, I had it in my pattern stash already, and it required very little fabric.  Seemed like a slam-dunk.  We had originally intended to make it for a wedding where she was to play the violin, but the bride wanted everyone in navy and we just never found anything that fit the bill for this one.

Last weekend we picked out a lovely lacy black mesh from Gorgeous Fabrics for the contrast (yoke and hem), and since Stephanie was in love with her latest toenail polish, she picked a bright magenta/fuchsia crepe-back satin from Vogue fabrics that matched her little piggies perfectly as the predominant color.  She generally has a very pleasant sense of style, so I didn't give it much thought.

They arrived on Friday, and I didn't say anything, since it was her pick, but imagined something from a trashy bordello instead of an elegant evening dress.  What a relief when she told me later Friday night that she didn't want to look like a hooker and can we please go with plain black satin instead? 

 lac5875 (Gorgeousfabrics.com) & SR-CVS-Fuchsia (voguefabricsstore.com)

I was picturing something closer to this for the end product:


So we have revised the search.  We will keep the black lace -- it would be easiest to mix it with a black satin, although it would be more fun to find a nice dark purple or something with less contrast to the black than what the fuchsia has. I guess another black dress wouldn't hurt, would it?  Young ladies and violinists always need black dresses.

Drop dead date is October 13, so I will have to shop locally.  BLURG!  Our fabric store choices are limited...