Sooooo I made a Cambie – a real Cambie, not the half-assed Pocahontas version – a Cambie with two sleeves! And a straight hemline!

The fabric was a birthday gift from my friend Jasmin. I don’t really understand why there aren’t more fabrics with a peony pattern! I vastly prefer them over roses.

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I bought silver lining (shiny!) for it because I wanted something special for such a pretty fabric. I think it’s cotton? Unfortunately the fabric is very delicate and already has little rips and tears, as you can see on the picture below. I thought I’d iron on a few strips of interfacing to avoid them getting bigger … or do you have any tips how to deal with this type of fabric? Advice would be greatly appreciated. 🙂

I quite like having two sleeves, by the way … no danger of suddenly flashing everyone, no need for safety pins to hold everything in place! In all seriousness, the sleeves are one of my favourite features of the Cambie pattern. They’re so goddamn adorable! The only change I made to the pattern this time was to shorten the skirt because I didn’t have enough fabric. I don’t mind, though, because I prefer skirts that end shortly over the knee.

My other favourite feature are the pockets. Especially because I’m an anxious person who never knows what to do with their hands. Now I can put them in my pockets! PROBLEM SOLVED. I took me ages to sew them on properly, though. I still don’t understand how they work, actually; I’m currently making a second Cambie and I’m stuck on the pockets again.

I’m not entirely sure what happened with the lining situation. I specifically remember cutting the lining shorter than the fabric, yet it still peaks out under the skirt. I could shorten it, of course, but let’s be honest with ourselves here: I’m a fundamentally lazy person, and it’s doubtful I’ll even sew on the interfacing as planned above, and that is rather necessary for the continued survival of this dress!

Lisa of Mrs.O.Gehry And Her Curves took these pictures. I think she did a great job! We went to the little garden between the English and Romance studies institutes in Heidelberg. This city has lots of picaresque little corners, but it’s hard to escape the incessant stream of wildly photographing tourists. The garden is so quiet it’s ideal for taking pictures!

These two shots, however, were the idea of my friend Patricia, and are composed with the combined power of our art history expert skills. The contrast between the elegant dress and the prosaic act of eating fast food symbolizes the banality of today’s society that has forgotten the value of blah blah blah snore. Just kidding, I just think these pictures are funny as hell. 😀