It's all Nancy Drew's fault.  I read the books.  I liked them.  The mysteries were fun to decipher and the adventures she had kept the books intriguing.  However, my real delight was the drawings of Nancy, Bess, and occasionally George.  I loved their clothing.  The full skirted dresses with little jackets and hats.  I loved it all.  I wanted them myself but you couldn't exactly buy those kinds of things in  1982.  People were wearing knickers, preppy double breasted shirts, and stirrup pants and baggy shirts were just around the corner. 

I saved my money.  I didn't spend my vacation money.  I hoarded and denied myself lemonade Bubblicious bubble gum and Hickory Farm's pickles.  I was determined and by the time I came back from two weeks vacation, I was ready.  I took my normal walk up Harbor Blvd, right on Seaward, and up to Thompson.  However, this time I didn't turn right on the first street past the shopping center with Newberry's and go to see John and Gloria. I didn't even get to that street.  Instead, I turned immediately into Fabrictown U.S.A.  I'd considered a walk to Beverly's down on Main Street but it was farther away and I was determined to start immediately.  I wandered around the store looking for fabrics that I liked.  I was drawn to the Gunne Sax look.  The patterns, however, were very expensive.  After much searching I found a Butterick See & Sew pattern that would do just fine.  I have no idea what prompted me to do it. 

The dress was designed with a deep scooped yoke for a "Bodice".  This yoke buttoned to a high neck with a ruffle  The sleeves also buttoned at the wrist with a ruffle. The rest of the dress hung from this yoke like a maternity dress but it wasn't intended as a maternity dress.  There was a ruffle around this yoke and around the hem. 

I chose my fabrics carefully.  A small calico print scattered across the tan background of the main fabric and I chose a coordinating floral stripe for all ruffles and the neckband.  Considering that I had almost no sewing experience whatsoever, I decided on the new and exciting product, VELCRO, as my fastener.  I bought exactly how much fabric it told me to, my pattern, pins, thread, and the VELCRO.

At home, I cut out all pattern pieces and laid out my main fabric.  I didn't bother with their silly schematic for laying out the pattern pieces.  I remembered how derisively Grandma Avants had spoken of their layouts.  It was her personal opinion (which I now share to a huge degree sometimes) that those layouts were designed to ensure maximum fabric purchase rather than minimum fabric use.  So, with happy abandon I cut all of thte calico pieces and laid them aside.  I was particularly pleased that unlike Lucy Ricardo, I did not cut the carpeting.

I laid out my striped pieces, astounded at the huge piece of fabric left over.  There had been quite a bit of the calico but nothing like this!  However, I smirked to myself that I'd bested those wasteful companies and picked up my scissors.  Providence has away of saving us from ourselves while humbling us at the same time.  This was one of those occasions.  Just as I went to make my first cut, Mom popped in the room to see how I was doing.  I could tell that my choice of dress wasn't impressive to her.  She was right, of course, but I didn't get it at the time.  It was very "Gunne Sax-ish" and that's what I wanted.  I showed her my cut pieces, my leftover fabric, and my next piece to cut and moved to make that cut once more but mom's voice cut the air first.

"Um, I don't pretend to know anything about sewing but I think those arrows and lines are there for a reason."

That's all she said.  She left the room and let me make my own decision on what to do.  I looked at the pattern pieces trying to figure out what she meant.  I looked at them on the fabric.  I looked at the layout.  I saw it.  My striped ruffles were goign sideways, diagnonally, and some just slightly off kilter.  Had I cut it out, I'd have had a mess on my hands.  Saved by my mom's timely entrance, I cut the silly thing out, this time making only minor adjustments to the pattern recommended layout.

Oh boy.  Then came the fun. Hours of hemming ruffles.  Hours of gathering ruffles.  Hours of trying to make the dress hang right.  Hours of trying to make my VELCRO encrusted yoke NOT stick out like a sore thumb.  You see, not only did I use something unique like VELCRO to fasten cuffs and yokes, but I used STRIPS of it instead of pieces.  So the yoke was one 12" strip of stiff stick-togethered-ness stuff that I sewed on the yoke BEFORE adding the skirt.  Yeah.  Brilliant.  So I had to trim and fight and trim and fight so that it din't try to stick out like a cancerous growth in a very inopportune place.  It also itched terribly.

Then I had to sew on buttons like I had actually done the button holes.  All that expanse of fabric needed somethign to break it up.  I did small pearl buttons which actually looked pretty cute.  Then I got dressed in my new dress and raced downstairs to show my parents.  They admired my work, my ingenuity on the button situation and studiously avoided commenting on the actual dress.  As I tripped back upstairs I could see their looks at each other.  Now I realize their silent communication wasn't, "Isn't she amazing" but rather, "She looks pregnant!"  Maybe it was God warning them as to the future? 

Anyway, I went upstairs and preened in front of my huge dresser mirror  I was so excited.  I'd wear it to church the next day and woudn't  Mrs. Santos be proud!  Ahem.  I preened less eagerly.  I stood still.  I gave it a critical eye.  It looked an awfully lot like one of Mrs. Elder's maternity dresses.  Curiously, I stuffed a pillow under my dress and gasped.  It looked HORRIBLE.  Whatever would I do?

Well, for one thing I would not wear that dress with a pillow under it no matter how much I wanted to rest wherever I was going.  It looked too... maternal!  I didn't have any tan belts- Wait!  My gray suit had a nice burgundy belt tha would match perfectly!  I grabbed it and slipped it around my waist and cinched it within an inch of its life.  I always liked things really tight at my waist.  I wonder why that was?  It took a few adjustments at the waist before I got everything laying just right.  The dress was perfect!  How exciting!

I have a picture of it around here somewhere.  I'll have to dig it out.  You'd think that with all of my blunders and wasted money and the final product less that originally hoped for, that I would have learned my lesson and taken up basket weaving or rock cleaning but no, I had the bug.  I still have the bug.  And I honestly believe that if mom had "taken over" and "fixed my blunders" that morning rather than simply saying, "I think those arrows and lines are there for a reason," I would have given up on the idea of sewing for some time.

I'm still working on that perfect Nancy Drew dress.  All my attempts were cute but not quite right.  Some day...