Copy Your Clothes! Finished Item!

I finished it!  And actually, today was the 2nd time I wore it.  I got a good friend to take this photo of me at work, because I also wanted to show of my new standing desk.  The desk was out in the public part of the library (it's ancient), and was about to be moved downstairs to be given away or tossed, and I thought, well, I've been wanting to try a standing desk.  So I put it in my cubicle, rearranged my computer & screens and now I have plenty of places to lay projects I'm working on because my computer no longer takes up that space.  

I mostly like standing, but my legs are tired at the end of the day!  (I do easily get to 10,000+ steps every day now.) 

The first thing I did was buy an anti-fatigue mat...the cement floor underneath the thin carpet is not comfortable at all...much like standing in museums all day (which I love, but I always end up with lower back pain).  The mat helps a lot.  

Oh, but....back to the dress!  This was my first successful attempt at applying what I learned in the Copy Your Clothes class at Bits of Threads.  Below you'll see the original, which Mohammed made from a photo I had brought him.  I wore the dress for more than 5 years, so definitely got the use out of it, but it was faded and beginning to look beat up.  So, time for a new one!  

I took it almost completely apart and traced all the pattern pieces.  That's the easy way to copy your clothes--when you don't take them apart it's much more difficult to get the pattern pieces traced.    

I had a few bumps along the way, mostly because the original fabric was quite thin with some give, while the fabric I got from Windham is a bit thicker cotton and doesn't have as much give, even though I was careful to place the princess seams on the bias.  But it still looks great (I think) and I like it because the color's great (and goes with lots of my turquoise) and it also goes with my new black sandals!  

The original dress, that I took apart to
make a new pattern...

I also did a tiny bit of lining, mostly inspired by Ms. Scruffy Badger, who seems to line just about everything.  It's a summer dress & summer in DC means hot & humid, so I figure anything that helps the dress (and moi!) looking nice a bit longer is worth the effort. 

So you're looking at an example of the mini-lining I put in, using the poly/cotton blend I picked up on a super sale at Hancock.  I lined the sleeve completely, then cut shorter pieces for the front & back side pieces.  The dress & lining fabrics are just the right weight: they work together but you cannot see the lining at all when I'm wearing the dress.  I am hoping this will protect the dress a bit and let me wear it a long long time.