What a crock! Or, how bad things happen to favorite white shirts...

First off, thanks to everyone for their warm support and condolences. I'm feeling much more positive lately and it's largely due to much mindless surfing of the internet.

In other news, I have been sewing! Lately, the sewing machine has been humming away on McCall's 5624. This is an interesting pattern, featuring a dress in two lengths - mid-knee & maxi - and a jumpsuit. That's right folks: a jumpsuit. I have noticed lately that certain starlets in Hollywood have been seen sporting the jumpsuit in various incarnations. Certainly there are those that argue a jumpsuit really only looks good on WW2 airmen, mechanics in calendars smeared sexily with grease, and Elvis. I would tend to agree and say the modern woman should avoid the jumpsuit at all costs, as demonstrated by the model on the pattern photo... Even ignoring the unfortunate placement of the starburst motifs on the bodice, the jumpsuit does this lovely model no favors by lengthening her crotch, shortening her legs, let along having to get naked to use the loo. Seriously, who wears these?

The interesting details of this particular pattern feature twisted straps, an empire waist and midriff inset. These aren't that noticeable, but if you look closely at the line drawing, you can see the twists. Also, I cut the pattern for the shorter dress out of approximately 1.5 yards of fabric - definitely a nice feature for the odd piece in the stash.

The fabric I chose is a red printed rayon challis that I picked up for about $0.80/yd when the local Hancock's closed it's doors. Score, right? Wrong! Which brings me to the title of this particular post. Now, one of the reasons we should all prewash fabric is because sometimes cheap fabric reveals itself and its evil ways before it enters circulation in your wardrobe. So, I'm sure you're saying, "Rosanne just get to the point already." There was considerable excess dye in the yardage and it has transferred color to everything that has touched it, a problem referred to as "crocking". My fingers, the sewing machine, my ironing board cover, my iron! True, the fabric is rayon and dyes for rayons are notorious non-colorfast. But still...

So Friday morning, while I'm getting ready for work I decided I wanted to wear my favorite white shirt. It fits just so and hits me in all the right places, you know? I pull it from the hanger and realize it could use a good press so I readied the iron and board. From the first touch of hot plate to cloth, I knew I was done for! The impression of my iron in red on my favorite shirt! And this is after two washes and soaks with oxygen bleach and stain remover! Just look!
I'm about 65% completed with the dress. I just have to attach the skirt and midriff lining then it'll be ready for zipper installation. So far, the bodice is "okay," neither bad nor good. The only shaping comes from slight gathers under each bodice half and and I don't believe it's bra friendly on my body. I might end up taking out the straps and resewing the pleats on the bodice and re-twisting the straps. Looking at the photo now, the right side looks slightly off. That color is really red, though, isn't it? I should have known...
So, I'm going to try to do as the infomercials do and soak the shirt in oxyclean for a while and see what happens. I'm really hoping the dye isn't colorfast on my shirt, either...