So Last Saturday a friend of mine and I went to goodwill to look for some cheap T-shirts that I could do a little experimental sewing with. The T-shirts were slim pickins but… when we wandered through the linen section I found on the rack a really awesome vintage sheet. A rare find for $4.00; I knew it would make an awesome dress! So I’m like, “Holy crap!!! This is going to make an awesome dress!!!” So I grabbed it and we wandered around a bit, I grabbed a couple T-shirts (I guess it’s better to experiment on dumb ones first rather than wreck good ones trying new techniques.) wander a bit longer then I make my purchase and we head out.
So just to give everybody a bit of a reference point here. I just recently found out that I have a talent for sewing. Short from sewing straight lines and simple projects growing up with a lot of help from my mother, I have never really done any sewing… technically. Everything up till this year that I have sewn has been half ass and somewhat cheezy; more often than not unfinished! Last Feb. I realized that finding cool things that I want to wear in my size can be somewhat of a challenge. I was going to a roaring 20’s party and discovered the hard way (enduring very rude sales people at a costume shop) that women my size (26) are not really catered to when it comes to playing dress up. As if for some reason our money isn’t good enough to buy costumes or maybe we just don’t deserve to dress up? Phooey on them! I marched myself right down to the fabric store and bought myself some material then went right over to K Mart and bought a sewing machine! So I have officially only just very recently started sewing my own clothes.
For those of you who haven’t noticed yet, dress up days are totally geared for skinny “naughty” women. I have noticed as I get older and have cooler friends who put more effort into cooler parties for Halloween that the more money that goes into the party, the more cookie cutter the hot chick costumes are. So lets see, there is naughty nurse, naughty school girl, naughty witch, naughty fairy, naughty bug, naughty… naughty… naughty… All of the costumes are exactally the same, just different colors! It’s stupid!!!
At any rate, I am kind of getting side tracked into another story here…
So back on track, I go home Sat afternoon and in about 3 hours tops… I whip out this amazing dress! (Perfect for the party down on the river on Sunday) I love this dress! Everybody else loves this dress. I wore it to my party and people complimented away. My constant need for approval was thoroughly satisfied Sunday! My dress is a total hit! People were amazed that it came from a bed sheet. Not to mention it was my own design. I sew specifically for my body. I have yet to use a pattern. Obviously I get ideas off of other clothes but I just sketch out what I want the end result to be then start piecing together the outfit, just like a puzzle. The trick is to take your time! (I think that’s why my previous clothes turned out so poorly when I was younger, I was always in a rush, I didn’t think things through!)
So here I am, at work, in compliment heaven… I decide to wear my dress to work today. No problem, the dress is a total hit! So I walk into one of my agents cubes. She has a question for me… Mid sentence, she completely stops… I am looking at her and she is looking at my dress. Not really looking actually… more like staring with a very confused look on her face. Like she is trying to figure something out. I am thinkin yeah… somebody else is going to notice my dress! Yeay me!!! So I begin to tell her about how I made the dress last Sat and she sort of cuts me off… she says, “I don’t want to offend you but… back in the 70’s my parents had bed sheets with that exact same pattern.” I think my face turned officially as pink as the material of the dress!
So, long story short… there is a very good chance given the location of the goodwill that the material was purchased and the location of where she grew up… that one my agents, at some point in time has slept… in my dress!
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fabulous dress….and fabulous story! but, yeah, i understand the “small world” syndrome of thrift shopping. i donate my boys’ outgrown things to a thrift shop. one day, i see little boy at school and there is something very familiar about him….he’s wearing my son’s old jacket! actually, i was so happy to see that jacket getting another life.
btw, when someone starts a sentence with “i don’t want to offend you….” they should probably not say it.
teri