Why I Want To Learn To Sew: Reason #2

Butterick 8089, Circa 1930s

Last night, I waltzed in blue jeans. I foxtrotted in blue jeans. I cha-cha’d in blue jeans. I even did the rumba — the dance of love and longing (I can hear the sounds of violins, long before it begins, make me thrill as only you know how, sway me smooth, sway me now) in blue jeans. Yes, they were stylish jeans, freshly washed, dark denim, all that. But still. Waltzing? You get the picture. There are those among my ballroom set who feel blue jeans are not appropriate attire for the dance floor. “Delman says jeans are tacky on the dance floor,” sneered Elaine. “After all, it’s ballroom. Ballroom!” Of course, I looked at her as if she were the result of a particularly nasty science class experiment gone awry. But.

Now, I don’t give a fig — I actually love figs, so perhaps I should say a dried cranberry — what most people think, unless I happen to agree with them. And I do agree that the ballroom dance floor is not the best setting for jeans. But it’s summer, and after a few swirls around the floor, it’s more than a little toasty, and I absolutely refuse to wear pantyhose during this seemingly endless heat wave, so that leaves jeans. In my current wardrobe, anyway. I have jeans, and I have dressy. Dressy that requires one of the most excruciatingly uncomfortable things known to the female sex — pantyhose. Worse than a bikini wax given by the most sadistic practitioner. I hate pantyhose even in the winter. But when the temperature soars to 100? No. Absolutely, emphatically no.

But this dress, shortened to ballet length, would be ideal for summer dancing: It’s elegant; it’s beautiful, and it leaves skin exposed but not in a trashy, slattern-on-the-make way. (As His Bertness said of one divorcee, “Her clothes are so revealing there’s no way to dance with her without touching skin.”)

By the way, if you’re a Young and the Restless viewer, and I am (guilty pleasure, guilty pleasure, guilty pleasure), you may recall that Lauren Fenmore wore a dress with a similar bodice yesterday. Vintage patterns are timeless.

Comments

[Sue Lamphere]

Got any more copies of this pattern? I want one!!!