19 Dresses and Counting...

I love a dress!  If I lived in an area where I could wear a dress all year long, I would!  I especially love that I can sew my own dresses because being a plus size chick and finding an interesting RTW plus size dress without paying an arm and a leg is damn near impossible...and the pattern companies are really not that far behind with their limited supply.

So since I love wearing a dress so much...I've made quite a few of them this year...19 to be exact!  Hopefully that 20th one will materialize before December 31st!!!  I mean I NEED a new dress for New Year's Eve church service, right! *LOL*

In order of creation...here is the dress parade:

ETA:  to correct the number of dresses I've actually made...*sigh* there's been alot of them so please forgive the miscount! *LOL*

The first dress out the gate was my winterized version of Butterick 5179. 

The second dress was a pretty popular one on PR as evidenced by the 28 reviews for it. It is my version of Butterick 5247:

The third dress of the year, was my version of the Little Black Dress - made from my TNT dress pattern:

Number 4 on the hit parade was, Butterick 5146.  Can I tell you that I've only worn this dress twice...the close fit of the knit dress makes me uncomfortable...and not that I didn't get compliments on it...but it's just outside my comfort zone.

Number 5 was another knit dress.  However, I loved wearing this dress.  I wore it to work several times and a couple of times for weekend events...it was just so easy to wear!  I really need to make a few more for this summer!  Vogue 1091 - the Tom & Linda Platt dress:

Dress number 6 is "The Ralph Lauren Dress" so named because that was the description of the fabric on Emmaonesock's site. It is made from my TNT dress pattern in a crispy linen fabric. 

Lucky number 7 was "The Dreaming of Spring" dress.  It was a really involved dress with a lot of moving parts made from my TNT dress pattern.  It also houses my greatest disappointment...I put in a sorry invisible zipper and just didn't have the heart to take it out...so I camoflaged...and wore it that way every time I wore it last spring!  Don't look at me like that...you know you do it too! *LOL*

I have two personal favorites this year...and "The Chadwicks Dress" is one of them.  I really stepped out of my corporate work look with the color yellow...using it in three dresses.  So besides the amazing color of this dress, the fact that I copied it from a picture in a catalog and then it also wears so well, makes it one of my top two favorite dresses of the year!

In an effort to bring some color to my wardrobe, dress number 9 is part of a wardrobe of "colorful" garments.  It's a dress pattern that I've used before, Simplicity 4014.  It made a wonderful dress that was comfortable to wear and added some variety to my corporate work look:

I was really on a yellow kick and dress number 10 is also yellow.  Yellow linen to be precise...made from Butterick 5347:

I'm going to be honest here...okay when am I not *LOL*...but seriously this dress is the epitome of a good idea gone bad.  I used an amazing silk print for it...sewed it up and never wore it!  I just couldn't get past the muu-muu-ness of this dress...*sigh*  Vogue 8596...Rachelle if you want this one...you can have it!  *LOL*

The next one is bright, pretty and summery, made from my TNT dress pattern and a woven stretch cotton...it's okay...just okay.  I will take the side seams in on this one before next summer because it just grows and grows and grows with my body heat...which can be quite a bit in a menopausal woman...

Number 13 - is my interpretation of a Micheal Kors dress.  Now you know I love MK...he just knows how to dress a woman...and I can "interpret" his ready-to-wear looks easily to my size.  This interpretation was made with a v-neck version of my TNT dress pattern and was fun and easy to wear.  It's also a testament to having a great fabric collection...because I thought about making it, rummaged around in the collection and voila!

Dress number 14 is all about the fabric.  I loved this fabric when I saw it on Fabric Mart's site and it was a perfect trans-seasonal dress.  It also was the first garment that I made on my Sewcation...yet another version of my TNT dress pattern..."The Black/White Eyelet Dress":

Late summer/early fall is one of my favorite times of the year...just edging out spring.  So I went into a dress making frenzy during my sewcation as well in the weeks that followed - Dress 15 - was made using my TNT pattern and a great embellishment:

...and dress 16, "Pumpkin, Pumpkin...I've got a Pumpkin" was also sewn during the sewcation.  I am really into my "Michelle Obama sheath mode" here and both dresses were discussed in this post.

My dress imagination is in full gear now...revved up and ready to roll!  And during this period, I think I came up with some of my best dresses of the year.  Dress number 17 is my ultimate favorite dress of the year...I don't think what I've planned for number 20 can beat this one.  It has everything I like in a dress ~ color, comfort, fashionable but with a corporate look but most especially it makes me feel pretty when I wear it.  So without further ado, my favorite dress of 2009 - "The Variation on a Theme Dress":

I threw a basic gray sheath dress from my TNT dress pattern into the mix to match this fabu jacket from Vogue 1127.  It just works with so much in my wardrobe and again is a nod to the Michelle Obama style:

The last two dresses are variations of black and white and part of a series of dresses that I called "The Cardigan Series."  As much as I like color I still have to fit in at work *smile* so black and white fulfills those requirements yet gives me an opportunity to be uniquely me.  I used the bones of my TNT pattern from the Chadwicks dress for this black and white boucle dress and added a little embellishment:

...and finally dress number 19 (actually 20)...which I named after LindsayT because we bought the fabric together one summer Saturday at Moods.

To recap - I've used seven patterns from the Big4 pattern companies to create some of my dresses this year.  I've "interpreted" two dresses - one from a designer and one from a catalog.  The final 10 were some variation of my TNT dress pattern.  I really gave that pattern a work-out this year and ended up with so many different looks.  However, the predominant look in my dress wardrobe this year was the sheath dress and this was in direct reflection of Michelle Obama's style.

My goal for next year's dresses (yes, there will be more!) is to use more of the vintage patterns that I've collected to make some awesome dresses with interesting details.  I definitely want to add some more sheath dresses in other colors to my wardrobe...they just make dressing in the morning sooooo easy...and my final goal would be to make at least one dress a month.  

For my final dress of this year, I can't decide whether to make it complicated or to finish off the last dress in the cardigan series.  I have so many ideas floating around in my brain, quite a bit of fabric and some time...so we shall see what emerges!

If you've lasted to the end of this very long post...thank you for reading along and please tell me which dress did you like best this year?

...as always, more later!