Beyond the pattern

The other day in class one of my students was talking with one of her friends about an outfit she had made to go out. Seems she had bought two dresses and cut them up and sewed them together to make one dress that was exactly what she wanted.


I, of course, couldn't resist going off topic and later asked her more about her sewing. She explained to me that her mom had sent her to kid's sewing classes, that as a teenager she had moved on to the Big 4, but of course now these days, because she had been sewing for such a very long time, she was "beyond the pattern."


She is 21.


This made me wonder at how pattern dependent I am, although I am dipping my toes in Wild Ginger's software.


So I decided yesterday to make something patternless.


I pulled some wild silk charmeuse that I have used before to line things, made a gathered tube for the body and another smaller tube for my upper chest, attached a couple of purchased bra straps that I have collected in one of the million grab bags I have purchased in my life, and stitched those at the top. 


And now I have a new nightgown.

 I know from past experience that those silky type straps are hopeless for sliding around when you sleep and getting wrapped around your neck so I was pretty pleased with the bra strap idea, and of course that they are adjustable.

A little wild, but hey, I didn't use a pattern. (Or a lot of taste my DH is probably going to think.)


Not to worry, it is super comfortable and I sure like it.


Now a housecoat to match ....