The “Bookworm” Dress

The Facts
Fabric: about 2.5 metres of some woven blend, $4 from Fabric-a-brac, and a bit of navy lining from my stash
Pattern: Style 2382
Year: 1978
Notions: none!
Time to complete: 4 hours
First worn: about 5 mins after I made it, for a walk around the zoo
Wear again? already have!
Bump: 26 weeks
Total cost: $4

Yep, I admit it – I’ve made this pattern before. But heck, I’ve been wearing it so much, and it’s so comfy, I just had to make another one!

I have another confession as well – this dress was made for the TV Characters inspiration week at The Sew Weekly. And the TV series I used was the same as the one I used for inspiration last year. Not even that, but I also used the same character for inspiration. And just to completely clone May last year, I even used the same dress for inspiration. (Why was this? Was I just not feeling very creative, or is it that there’s something about that dress that just makes me want to make other ones based on it?!?) Here’s my inspiration:

Yep, it’s Willow from Buffy the Vampire Slayer! And a cute little (shapeless and geeky) pinafore dress. I heart Willow – she’s awesome. And something about her geeky-yet-cute style appeals to me.

I did try to find other inspiration. I went hunting all over the place for pregnant TV characters. Turns out there aren’t many of them. Mad Men is the best show for them, but I’ve never managed to get into Mad Men. (Hopefully that didn’t shock the online sewing world toooo much. I admit it – I watched three episodes in the hope it would grow on me, but it didn’t. I got bored.) It didn’t seem right to be inspired by an outfit from a character from a show I don’t like, so I fell back onto one of my old fave’s – good ol’ Buffy.

This fabric came from Fabric-a-brac the other week – as soon as I saw it, I wanted to make another version of Style 2382 in it. The TV Characters inspiration came along at just the right moment – being inspired by Willow’s preppy plaid pinafore, I made a pretty plaid pinafore of my own. Yay!

I love this pattern – it comes together so nice and easily. No notions either – you just pop it over your head and you’re good to go. I figure I’ll be able to wear this style post-pregnancy as well, with a belt around my waist. Or that’s the hope, anyway. Only reason it took 4 hours to make is because I’m slow at hand stitching (for the lining on the inside), otherwise it would have been a 3 hour dress.

As soon as I finished making it, I put it on and Steve and I took advantage of a beautiful sunny winter’s day to go for a walk around the zoo and look at the animals. We spent a while at the giraffes. I like the giraffes – they’ve always been high on my list of favourite animals. Also, they have blue tongues. How cool and random is that?!?

There’s all sorts of random things dotted around the zoo – they’re slowly turning it into themed areas for each country/continent. So up around the African area, there are things like huts and jeeps and the like. Since it was there, I sat in the jeep, as countless children have probably done before me. (It’s getting to be a bit of a struggle getting in and out of things like that gracefully though, I must say!)

This dress nicely fits into the ‘vintage’ and ‘dress’ categories of the Sew, Baby! challenge. As has pretty much everything else I’ve made for maternity wear. Hah. Figures.

So why call this the ‘Bookworm’ dress? Well, Willow’s a bit of a bookworm. And so am I. I go through books pretty quickly, and I’ve especially been doing so with this whole pregnancy thing – too tired to go out and socialise, so I hide at home with a book instead. I figure I’ll be reading a fair few in the future, wearing this dress and curled up on the couch with a snuggly blanket and a cat or two. Winter is prime book reading season, after all.

Speaking of which – anyone got any good books to recommend??