Ottobre Dress 02/2009 #04

Ottobre Dress - "almost" a dumpy dancer's dress ... needs work for this pear shaped body.




























I described this as a Japanese/Norwegian fusion pattern. It does remind me a bit of Japanese minimalism (Miyake perhaps?) and Van Den Akker's designs. I guess Japanese/Dutch fusion would be more appropriate.

It looks really cute in the drawings and photographs, but it has problems. Part of it is the changes I made, and part of it is the combo of my body shape and pattern. In short, the pattern was not created for tall pears.





















I did add pockets, which gave me a touch more width at the hipline. Not extremely flattering. However, the extra width I added to the skirt caused more hip width problems than the pockets.

I wanted to wear this dress to work, and I didn't want to be flashing massive amounts of thigh. As originally drafted, the side of the skirt hits mid-thigh. NOT attractive in my opinion.

However, having worn it for a day, the extra width is unnecessary. The shape of the skirt makes it hang such that thigh flash is not a concern ... there's quite of bit of protective underlayer wrapping hither and thither at that leg :).





















The side view shows the biggest problems.

#1) A bunch of fabric at my lower back, simply oodles of "this needs to be fixed with a sway back adjustment" ... about 2 inches by eyeballing it. I usually do 3/4" or so.

#2) This draft also renders my chest flat and my torso waistless.




















Oh, there they are!


Final problems are location of waistline. The draft has a low empire, I added an inch and it still hits two inches above my waist. I believe it is this that gives it the no body shape effect, especially with the weight of the skirt.

Possible future fixes ...
- lengthen bodice

- narrow waistline

- narrow skirt?

- narrow front neckline by 1/2" (it gapes a bit, not uncommon)


On the plus side, the dress does have some fun movement ... leg swirlies!

AND, the bodice seams are lovely.


As to construction details, I interfaced the side seams, neckline, armscyes, and bodice angle seams to minimize stretching with skirt weight.

I did not put a hem on the skirt, as the cheap knit fabric is heavy enough that it hangs well and does not curl.


I can see taking the bodice pieces and turning this into a top/tunic combo.

Brown Ombre Gradation Manicure

Fam's comment, "Did you have to pay extra for that?"

Revlon Sheer Nude (thumb)
CND Desert Suede (pointer)
SpaRitual InnerSanctum (middle)
Revlon Totally Toffee (ring)
Nubar Milk Chocolate Creme (pinky)















(Really bad bathroom light pic in an attempt to get all the fingers in one shot!)
































I wore this gradation for three days before anyone noticed the oddity.

It blended well enough that I'd almost consider this work appropriate, depending on your field.

All of the colors wore really well, and the small bit of chipping that occurred could be completely blamed on moving family to a new house.

The colors were not a perfect mix, but "close enough."

I've never done a full mani of any of these lacquers, so no true longevity readings.

Nfu-Oh 62, polish swatch

Here's another polish that seems to defy other bloggers' descriptions.

I purchased this because the color card seemed to suggest 62 was a peach shade, even though many word descriptions described this as a silver holo. I took a chance.













What is it? Peach.




















62 is a highly reflective polish, and the difficulty comes in seeing more flash than base color. The direct light hits a beautiful peach shade, and immediately gives way to the rainbow reflections of green, blue, purple, gold, and silver.

I think this will work on just about anybody because of the rainbow integration. Regardless, it was nice to find a "warmer" holographic.


Having (unfortunately) used the Nfu-Oh Aqua Base recommended for holos, I got squat wear out of this polish. I think it lasted a day ... maybe.

As such, I do NOT recommend the Aqua Base. I really need to try it again with an appropriate base for a true longevity reading.


One really (REALLY) interesting note occurred during top coat application. The top coat mattified my Nfu-Oh polish. I was heart-broken. There goes all the lovely holo goodness. Then the TC dried, and the holo reappeared. I've never seen anything like this response from OPI's My Private Jet (the only other holo I own). Anybody else seen this?

I can only guess that the wet top coat scattered the light in such a way as to disrupt the holographic flash.


62 is NOT a work appropriate shade! :) But it is fun. If you have the chance to try them out, and like/love holographic polishes, Nfu-Oh has several of them.

China Glaze Robotika, polish swatch

Robotika had an awesome application for a chrome. It went on smoothly, and dried quickly.

What came in my bottle does not seem to match a lot of the descriptions I read, and I pulled out my color card, because I don't see a lot of brown in this polish.

































What I get is a light plum. Located between purple and red, it is comfortably situated in the red-violet portion of the color spectrum.

Definitely a cooler color, and wearable with the appropriate accessories and colors.

Longevity wasn't great, and I believe this lasted three days before chipping.