Haljina sa zmijskim printom / A snakeskin dress

Sećate li se haljine sa zmijskim printom, koju sam šila prošle godine? Obukla sam je jednom od kako sam je završila, i od onda sedi u ormanu, čekajući da je obučem. 

Remember the snakeskin dress I made last year? I've worn it once since I made it, and it's been sitting in my closet, waiting for me to wear it.

Razlog za to je za mene prilično stresan - od kako sam se razbolela prošlog leta, prilično sam se ugojila zbog posebnog režima ishrane na kom sam bila. Iako sam sada zdrava, i više nisam na dijeti, višak kilograma je i dalje tu, i podseća me na dane kada sam bila fit. Mada sam haljinu napravila prema ovim novim merama, nisam se usuđivala da je nosim, jer nisam uspevala da se izborim sa sopstvenim nesigurnostima. 

The reason for this is quite frustrating to me - since I got sick last summer, I've gained a lot of weight due to a specific diet I was on. Although I'm healthy now and not on diet anymore, the extra weight is still there, reminding me of the days when I was fit. I made the dress to fit my current weight, but I hesitated wearing it, as I wasn't able to cope with my own insecurities.

Iskreno, prošla sam kroz razne faze raspoloženja, i bilo je dana kada nisam podnosila da vidim sopstveni odraz u ogledalu. U periodu rekovalescencije, kada je haljina i nastala, bila sam posebno nervozna. Hronično sam izgledala premoreno, imala sam poveće podočnjake, ten mi se naprasno pogoršao, a lice preplavilo aknama. Neverovatno, ali čak i kosa je izgledala suvo i beživotno poput slame. U par navrata su pokušaji da se doteram završili u suzama i očaju. Preplavio bi me osećaj da nemam kontrolu nad svojim telom, i da sam nemoćna da zamaskiram, korigujem ili poboljšam svoj izgled. Na sve to, sva garderoba koju imam, i koju sam godinama šila ili kupovala, je postala tesna, i tek par stvari iz svog ormana mogu da obučem. Sve odevne kombinacije koje sam do tada pažljivo sastavljala su postale beskorisne i neupotrebljive, a ja sam mesecima uporno odbijala da pravim novu garderobu za ovu kilažu, plašeći se da se tako nikad neću nakaniti da smršam. 

Honestly, I've gone through various moods and there were days when I couldn't stand looking at my reflection in a mirror. During the healing period, when the dress was made, I was extremely nervous. I looked tired all the time, I had dark under-eye circles, my skin was covered with acne. Even my hair was dry and lifeless. A few of my attempts to dress up ended in tears and despair. I would get overwhelmed by a feeling of not having a control over my body and not being able to cover my skin flaws and enhance the way I looked. Along with that almost none of the clothes I had been making and buying for years was too tight for me to wear. My favorite outfits became useless, and for months I refused to sew some new garments, due to a fear it would demotivate me from losing weight.

No, vremenom se moje telo oporavilo, akne nestale, ten poboljšao, a kosa sinula. Još samo višak kilograma da sredim, pa da budem ona stara. Do tada, reših da ipak uživam u starim navikama da se doterujem, jer se sređena mnogo lepše osećam. I tako, konačno obukoh svoju zmijsku haljinu...

However, my body healed over time, the skin looked good again and the hair became all curly and shiny. I just need to slim down to be my old self. Until then, I've decided to enjoy my old habits of dressing up, because it makes me feel better. So, I've finally put on my snakeskin dress...

Da podsetim, haljina je napravljena od malo debljeg žerseja koji nije mnogo rastegljiv. Kako bih malo ublažila zmijski print, kombinovala sam materijal sa maslinastnozelenim pamukom, koji sam koristila za okovratnik, pojas i manžetne.

To remind you, the dress is made of a thick jersey, which isn't very stretchy. I combined it with an olive cotton in order to tame the print a bit. I used the cotton for neckline, waistband and sleeve cuffs.

Osnova za haljinu bio je kroj za Nora haljinu sa Burda Style sajta, kombinovana sa krojem za haljinu iz Burde 5/2011, #128, koje sam izmenila do neprepoznatljivosti. Detalje o kroju i prepravci istog pročitajte ovde.

A basis for the dress was Nora dress pattern from Burda Style, combined with a dress pattern from  Burda Style 5/2011, #128,  which I altered until they were unrecognizable. You can read more about the alterations here.

I, samo zato što mnogo volim ovaj blejzer (koji nisam ja šila), tu je i par slika da demnostriram kako sam stilizovala haljinu.

And just because I love this blazer (which I didn't make) so much I've added a few more photos to demonstrate how I styled the dress.

Zmijsko telo / Snake's body

Nestrpljivo čekajući sledeći zadatak za TR masterklas, morala sam nečim da uposlim ruke, pa sam uzela da šijem haljinu. Trenutno izgleda ovako - fale joj rajsferšlus, rukavi, postava, porub. Haljina je zamalo završila u kanti, jer sam bila nezadvoljna njenim izgledom pre no što je prošla kroz ozbiljan makeover proces.

While impatiently waiting for the next TR Masterclass task, I had to make my hands busy with something, so I started sewing a dress. Currently it looks like this - it needs a zipper, sleeves, lining, hemming. The dress almost ended in a trash, because I hated haw it looked before the extreme makeover.

Ne znam da li se vama dešava da ste preplavljeni gomilom ideja, i da ne možete da se odlučite koju da odaberete i realizujete. Mene ovakvi momenti povremeno dohvate i u takvim situacijama najčešće odustanem od bilo kakvog rada, jer nisam u stanju da se skoncentrišem. Međutim, ovaj put sam MORALA nešto da šijem (to je ona grozničava potreba da uposlite ruke, kao da vam život zavisi od toga), pa sam uspela da odaberem, čini mi se, najgoru od svih ideja koje su mi se vrzmale po glavi. 

Dakle, htela sam da napravim haljinu od materijala koji imam već neko vreme. Tkanina, kao što vidite, ima zmijski print, koji je za moj ukus pomalo riskantan i spada u kategoriju nezgodnih dezena, tj. ukoliko se ne iskoristi na dobar način. Nisam znala kako da malo "umirim zmiju" sve dok nisam, pukim slučajem, stavila materijal do maslinasto - braonkastog pamuka koji sam nedavno kupila. Tada mi je sinulo da bi par detalja u kontrastnom materijalu umirilo divljinu printa. 

Do you have those moments when you're overwhelmed with a bunch of ideas and you can't decide which one to materialize? Well, I suffer from these moments from time to time, and in these situations I usually give up on any work, due to lack of concentration. However, this time I HAD to sew something (you know that agonizing need to keep your hands busy, as if your life depend on it), so I managed to pick the worst of all ideas that I had.

So, I wanted to make a dress using a fabric I had had in my stash for some time. The fabric, as you see, has a snake print, which is IMHO a bit risky and in a category of those fabrics that don't forgive wrong choice of garment style. I had no idea how to "tame the snake" until I, quite coincidentally,  put the fabric next to the olive-brownish cotton from a recent purchase. It was then that I realized that a few details in a contrasting fabric would calm down a bit the wilderness of the print.

Sa tom idejom na pameti, krenula sam da smišljam kroj koji bi najbolje ukombinovao dva materijala. I, u svemu tome, uspela dam da odaberem najgori mogući :-). Krenula sam od Nora haljine, tj. njene varijacije koju sam šila prošle godine. Varijacija je lepa, nemojte pogrešno da me razumete, ali ne u kombinaciji koju sam ja odabrala. Iskrojila sam rukave od jednobojnog materijala, a prednje i zednje delove bluze od tkanine sa printom. Ova kombinacija ni na koji način nije umirila zmjski print, već je ga je naglasila na užasan način. Izgledala sam kao da sam ukombinovala Star Trek uniformu sa zmijskom kožom. Nimalo elegantno niti ženstveno, već kostimirano. 

Having that idea on my mind, I started thinking of a pattern that would combine the two fabrics the best. While brainstorming of it, I managed to choose the worst possible pattern :-). I started with the Nora dress (that is - its variation), that I made last year. Don't get me wrong, I like the variation, but not in the combination I chose. I cut the sleeves out of the plain fabric and the bodice out of the snake print. The combination did not tame the snake print, but enhanced  it instead, in an awful way. I looked as if I mixed Star Trek uniform with a snake skin. Not elegant nor feminine, but costumed like.

Potpuno užasnuta rezultatom, napravila sam haos od dnevne sobe dok nisam našla rešenje. U par navrata apsolutne histerije, haljina je zamalo završila u kanti. Ne bi mi ovo bio prvi neuspeli poduhvat. Imam ih zapravo mnogo više nego što to možda izgleda, jer izbegavam da pišem o sopstvenom fijasku - previše sam sujetna da bih priznala da mi se i to dešava :-). Ipak, u ovom slučaju, nisam želela da bacim materijal koji mi se jako sviđao, i koji sam mesecima merkala za neku lepu haljinu. To nije bila opcija koju sam sebi mogla da dopustim. I tako, haos u sobi je smirio haos u glavi... Našla sam kroj koji sam mogla da ukombinujem sa iskrojenim delovima Nora haljine - Burda 5/2011, #128. Izmenila sam Nora haljinu, pa sam izmenila varijaciju Nora haljine, pa prešla na treći kroj, koji sam takođe menjala.... sve u svemu, ova haljina biće pravi bućkuriš, ili kako na engleskom zovu ovakvke krojeve - Frankenpattern.

Bučkuriš ili ne, meni se sada haljina sviđa! A to je najbitnije... Na slikama možete videti kako stoji na lutki. Iznenađujuće, na slikama se ne vidi koliko je lutki ova haljina velika - u struku i kukovima. Velika joj je i na grudima, ali sam navukla na lutku brushalter sa punjenjem, pa sam joj malo popunila poprsje.

Sve u svemu, za koji dan planiram da završim haljinu, nadam se da će biti gotova za subotnji rođendan na koji idem.

Being completely horrified by the result, I made a chaos in my living room until I reached a solution to the problem. In a few moments of total hysteria, the dress almost ended in a trash bin. This wouldn't be my first failure. Actually, I have more waders than you might think, but I avoid writing about them - I guess I am too wain to admit I have these moments too :-). However, in this case I didn't want to toss away the fabric I liked so much; that wasn't an option. So, the chaos in my living room stopped the chaos in my head... I found a pattern I could combine with the cut out pieces of the Nora dress - BWOF 5/2011, #128. I altered the Nora dress, then I changed the variation of the Nora dress, then I used a third pattern that was also altered... all in all, this dress will be a true Frankenpattern.

Frankenpattern or not, I like the dress now! That's the most important thing.. You can see on pictures how the dress looks on my dress form. Surprisingly, you can't see how big the dress is on the dummy. 

I plan finishing the dress in a couple of days, hopefully by Saturday, as I planned wearing it on a birthday party I'm going to.