Alice springs

Well, actually she doesn't. I do. Metaphorically, of course, my physical springing days being a long way behind me now; but this week I shall mostly be working on Alice's pinafore and petticoat.

Not, thankfully, the dress. The budget for the drama group took ages to come through, plus I had the shingles at about the time I really wanted to start getting on with it; so the only option was to find someone with a sewing machine who'd be prepared to run it up, and thankfully our pastor's wife (who really enjoys sewing) stepped into the breach. So I duly ordered all the fabric and haberdashery that I was aware that we needed (hold that thought!), it arrived a few days later, and on Saturday I thought "right, I had better sort out the stuff for the dress so I can take it to church tomorrow".

It looks like a lovely pattern. It also looks pretty easy to sew. But if you're thinking of making it, this is where you need to do some serious bewaring. Because they don't give you the information you need on the website.

The first thing I did was to look at the back of the pattern envelope to check I had enough fabric; I'd eyeballed it and guessed about 4 metres (and, to be honest, I thought that was a reasonably generous estimate). Very unusually, the back of the envelope didn't tell me that. It said the metreages were in the instruction booklet. OK. I took out the instruction booklet (which looks very clear and comprehensive), and had a look at that.

I think I probably said "oh, great Scott".

This dress strongly resembles an Open University degree. In other words, it is modular. You have the basic dress (2.8 metres of fabric); you have two different collar options, or you can choose not to have a collar (each collar option has a metreage); two different sleeve types or no sleeves (again with the individual metreages); and two different types of pocket or no pockets, ditto ditto. Oh, and then there's separate metreage for the neck facings, but I did not bother unfolding the pattern to check if these were different for the sleeveless option (combined neck and armhole facings are, after all, a thing). I will admit, I wibbled a little. I'm afraid our unsuspecting pastor's wife is going to have to play a bit of fabric Tetris. I mean... couldn't they have managed even a rough guide on the website? Something like "you will need X metres of fabric for the basic dress, and a total of anything up to Y metres depending on the options you choose"? (For the curious, Alice's dress will be pretty much the same as on the pattern envelope, but obviously made in that light blue fabric.)

Oh, and what's this? You need interfacing? Ah, that'll be for the collar... should have thought of that. It says fusible, but I don't have any (I hate fusible interfacing); I do have a pile of sew-in, so that went in the bag I took to church as well. (It'll be no bother. She's got a sewing machine, which is the entire point.) A button at the back? Gertie, I thought you said this was a popover dress? I have a multitude of buttons but not one of them is blue, so... ah yes, press studs, can't beat 'em, and honestly her hair will be hanging over it anyway.

Shirring elastic?!

I am pretty much my own haberdasher's shop here, but I don't have any shirring elastic. I never have cause to use it. I make things with elastic going through casings, and to be honest I thought that was what was going on with the puff sleeves here; a bit of bias binding on the inside to make a casing, and then some soft elastic. Needless to say I have a pretty good choice of both. I sighed, dug out some moderately wide bias binding (black, but it's not going to show) and some nice soft elastic (maroon, but it's really not going to show). Into the bag they went, with the pattern and the fabric and the matching thread and the interfacing and the press studs. If the pastor's wife happens to have shirring elastic and doesn't mind using it, then she's welcome to do so; but if not, we do the jury rig. It'll look pretty much exactly the same from the outside, and nobody is going to be peering up Alice's sleeves.

I also have something else to do this week, if I can possibly find the time (I'm going to be working like the proverbial beaver). I need to design some new earring styles unexpectedly quickly. I've been planning to do that right from the start, but it wasn't an immediate priority until Saturday, when I read up on how to open and run an Etsy shop and was brought up short by the "Prohibited Items" category.

Basically, you're not allowed to sell anything on Etsy if it's someone else's intellectual property, even if the actual designer is fine with you making and selling it. So I can sell the fractal earrings on Etsy because I designed those myself, but not the wreath or star styles, even though there's no restriction from either designer on making them for sale. (I can still sell those through the shop, so it's not wasted effort.) I suppose that, being a large outlet, they have to cover their backsides against designers suddenly changing their minds and deciding to sue someone, possibly including Etsy; but it's still kind of frustrating. Fortunately I do have a few half-formed ideas in my head already. I just need to find the time to sit down and tinker with beads to get them to work.

And I'm also a bit sad about that for another reason. Those fractal earrings are now available as a kit from Spoilt Rotten (with my name on it). I, too, don't restrict anyone from making them for sale; if someone else wants to make fractal earrings and sell them, then as far as I'm concerned, good luck to them. It's how I got started, after all. But they can't do it on Etsy. Not even if I wrote to Etsy personally and said, "look, it's all right, they have my permission".

Oh well. I doubt I'll have time today. Victorian-style pinafore (view D), here I come!