The Notebook Top

This week's theme for Project Sewn (season 4) is The Leading Lady. The challenge is to "make a look inspired by a leading lady from the movies." 
Well, choosing was not easy... There were many leading ladies from all of my favorite movies to choose from... Several of them wearing 1940-50's clothes.
My leading lady's choice ended up being determined by my fabric choice. Sometimes I go through my stash to get inspiration. When I laid my eyes in this polka dot cotton lawn I imediately thought: The Notebook! That beautiful polka dot red dress that Allie (actress Rachel McAdams) wears at some point. In fact, many of her clothes throughout the movie are red. So my inspiration from this leading lady are red and polka dots!

I endend up using two different color coordinating fabrics with matching (handmade) bias tape.
The pattern is the Belle des Champs tunic from the Japanese Magazine "Boutique Series" (French translation). It is a good thing that I am a visual person because the instructions are just two pages with a few graphic images and even fewer words. I had to set my mind on that kind of instructions but once I was focused I could easily follow through. It is a simple pattern and it was sewn pretty quick.

Although I had graded it up to my size (the magazine only had 3 sizes) using my own measurements I think it ended up being a bit too slouchy - well, Japanese pattterns tend to be like this actually... I personally like a slouchy top as much as I like a fitted blouse. It all depends if I'm going causal or dress-up.

Make sure you go to Project Sewn's blog to get inspired by everyone sewing along, here, and by the five contestants, here.

Well, I couldn't end this post without quoting The Notebook (a movie based on the novel with the same name from Nicholas Sparks, full of cheesy quotes), so here it goes, one of my favorite quotes from this movie - not so cheesy and so true...

“We sit silently and watch the world around us. This has taken a lifetime to learn. It seems only the old are able to sit next to one another and not say anything and still feel content. The young, brash and impatient, must always break the silence. It is a waste, for silence is pure. Silence is holy. It draws people together because only those who are comfortable with each other can sit without speaking. This is the great paradox.” 
― Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook

Oh, and yes, I am the kind of person who sobs uncontrollably with this kind of drama movies... :)