Ginaclarkstyle dress and wig hat

Fabric: 2 1/2 yards poly something from JoAnn, less than $20, and felt hood from Manny's Millinery, $25
Pattern: Vogue 8684 and "The Haircut Hat" from Saturday Night Hat by Eugenia Kim
Year: 2010 for the Vogue pattern and 2006 for the book
Notions: bias tape for neck facing, invisible zip
First worn: for photos
Wear again: I don't know where, but I'd like to
Time to complete: about 6 hours for the dress and 1 for the hat
Total cost: about $45

Gina is the undisputed queen of pants-- jeans, skinnies, dropped crotch, leggings, leather, bed skirt, you name it, she's rocked it.  We also share a fondness for a good button down shirt.  And my favorite Gina creation of the year was her mad Alice suit and hat.  So my first impulse to honor Gina was to make either pants, a button down shirt, or a suit in a cool print. 

Gina, as much as I love you, I could not bring myself to wear heels.

However, those projects would require fabric purchases.  Since I've spent enough lately, I tried to think about what I could do with what I already have.  I bought this taffeta-like fabric and another mermaidy ombré poly something about three years ago when I was planning to make Fenna an Ariel dress.  I  never got around to it and the princess phase has passed.  Gina's always doing amazing things with poly (see here, here, here, here, here, here, etc.), so I asked myself, what would Gina do?  I settled on two different dress patterns in my possession, one for each fabric.  Although the ombré fabric is more interesting-- it has the abstract painterly thing that says Gina to me-- that pattern was more involved so I dived into this one instead.

All the Vogue dresses I've made before have been WAY too big in the bodice so I cut an 8 instead of a 10 or 12, grading to the waist as usual. . . and it was too small!  I managed to make it work by letting out the side seams and center back since I'd already serged the shoulders and sleeves.  In future I think I need to cut an 8 in the neck, a 10 in the upper torso, and a 12 in the waist.  Or something like that.  I can see making this dress again in a double knit with the longer sleeves.

My hair, a little too short to pin up securely, kept popping out in the back.  But that's okay.

The more I worked on the dress the more iridescent and prom-like and yet plain it seemed.  I started to worry.  I can't miss the mark on the Gina challenge!  Once the idea for the wig hat came to me, I relaxed.  A wig hat takes the make to Gina level, no?

The subtitle of Eugenia Kim's Saturday Night Hat is "Quick, Easy Hatmaking for the Downtown Girl."  This hat is absolutely quick and easy if you happen to have a hat block, which I do.  (Back in the day I took a hatmaking class with milliner Lisa Shaub in her Soho shop.)  The only difficulty was tracking down a felt hood in the garment district, which delayed me a few days.  I soaked the hood in hot water, wrung it out, stretched, smoothed, and push-pinned it over the hat block, and let it dry overnight.

The next day I taped two clear plastic sheet protectors together, wrapped them around my head, and drew on them with a sharpie to make the haircut template.  I more or less transferred the template onto the felt with chalk.  Then I gave the hat a haircut. 

I had great fun on this trip to Ginaland, a place I wouldn't have visited if Loran hadn't invited me.  At the same time, I felt pressure, because a mediocre-- or worse-- result would be a sad reflection of Gina's style.  Some exciting SW contributor-inspired garments have been running through my head.  I hope I can stand the pressure!