My Danielle: A Velvet Wenchlet of a Dress

After a busy couple weeks filled with writing assignments, I needed to sew something this week. Something for myself. But I didn't want to go downtown, and I didn't want to spend any money. So I searched my stash for some suitable yardage. "Stash" may be a stretch these days, as I don't have much in the way of fabric on hand anymore. I also didn't want to throw good money after bad and buy a new pattern to use with a less-than-stellar fabric choice. So I thought I'd see if I could make the Danielle, a free pattern from Burdastyle.com, work for me. I wasn't too thrilled with the line drawing (which should have stopped me?):

 But I liked this version by Burda member mathildeparis:

C'est tres jolie, non? So I thought if I lengthened the sleeves like she did, and got the length of the skirt just right, it would be less '90s looking. You'd think.

But the result, dear readers, looks like something Zooey Deschanel would wear to a Ren Fair. In fact, when my husband came home last night and I out-Michael-Kors'd him by pre-emptively saying so, he suggested we get one of those giant turkey legs for the photo shoot. You know the ones: I've only seen them at the Fort Tryon Medieval Festival — they're $7 each and could feed your entire family.

 We weren't about to splurge on poultry when this dress is clearly fated for the cast-off pile. So I grabbed a ukelele as a prop instead (also Ryan's suggestion; I think he's actually getting into the idea of being my photo director). And no, I didn't adjust the colours in the photo post-download. The pink velvet is just that saturated. I choose to make the waistband out of some peacock-print silk I had leftover from my Bombshell Dress. I love this fabric and have saved every last scrap. I pondered the pairing, and thought to myself: What Would Oona Do? (WWOD) — remembering her great post on how to mix prints and colours with more prints and other colours (ones you wouldn't think to put together — even in the same (dark) room). And so I thought: yes, peacock print and (what would you call this?) pink DO go together.

 And here's the back, where you can see my darts on the bodice aren't aligned with my skirt darts because I made some adjustments and totally forgot to move the darts to match up. Whoops. Gray zipper was another WWOD brainwave:

I think I inadvertently made a dress that my 16-year-old self would have loved to wear with Dr. Marten's. Except for the pink. I passionately hated pink back then.

Where would you wear this dress? A Jane Austen Fan Club Singles Mixer? The after-party for a community theatre production of Legally Blond 3: Elle's Madcap Medieval Adventures?