An Owl and a Dress

Yesterday I had a sewing success and a sewing failure (maybe that's a little strong; disappointment might be more accurate). My success: this super cute appliqued owl burp cloth. Don't you love him? He's so cute

And Now the disappointment...

In the last post I mentioned my attempt to make a dress for the wedding this weekend. I was inspired by a Louis Vuitton dress I saw in Allure magazine:

 Pretty isn't it? I love the crushed velvet belt with the wool plaid. Seems to me very 50's-house-wife-get's-dressed-up-for-a-night out.

I love the crushed velvet belt. I'm not sure what the bodice is made out of but it's darn pretty.

Yes. That does say $6,450.

So...inspired by this dress I thought of a sweater vest I was going to donate to Goodwill:

I thought: "Hmm. This could be the bodice, now all I need is the plaid and the crushed velvet."

 So I got myself to the fabric store and purchased a very pretty purply/blue plaid and gray crushed velvet:

 

 They looked quite nice together. 

More often than not I sew without a pattern and the results are quite good. But this time, I was not so lucky. I'm at the stage where the dress is 3/4 of the way done and I'm wondering if it is worth it to continue and complete what I've started or stop and save the fabric from further cutting and sewing for another project (perhaps one with a pattern?).  

At this point, I'm wishing I had a dress form, because all this in and out of the dress makes it very hard to fabricate what I envision when the dress is one me. Plus the dress is really hard to get in and out of since I thought I could get away with not using a zipper. 

I'm not entirely happy with what I have so far: the seems are slightly off, making it look crooked in the back. So I doubt I'd even wear it to the wedding if I did finish it (I've got a back up plan in my mind, that includes a very cute top I already own). Either way I'll show you the end result: if it is good, you'll see pictures of me in it at the wedding. If it's bad, you might end up looking at the carnage created by a frustrated girl with a seam ripper and a pair of scissors.

--Sarah