OMG! Modern Shark Dress!! ca. Now

Three posts, and I’m already diverging from what this blog was intended to be. Oh well. These things happen. I present to you “Modern Dress in Blue”, inspired by years of heavy soaking wet denim.

Entering the Shark Encounter at Sea World, San Diego

For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved to sit in the soak zone at Sea World, hit Splash Mountain at Disneyland… if it gets me soaking wet, I’m there! But I also love jeans. And if you’ve ever worn soaking wet jeans, you know, they get heavy. And not just like, “Hm. This is uncomfortable.” It’s more like, “AHHHH, the sheer weight of the water is pulling my pants down, and why can’t I move my legs???” It feels like you’re in a bad dream and something is chasing you, you just can’t move your legs, no matter how hard you try. So as I sat in front of a sewing machine stitching up a rose-print black dress (pictures on their way, I just need to find an appropriate vintage setting for said pictures), I thought, “I should just make a light cotton dress to wear, something that would dry quickly and easily.

I also wanted to make a fishy dress to wear to aquariums and Sea World and other such places, and out of this, my soak zone friendly dress was created. It was originally knee-length with an off-the-shoulder ruffle, but then I ditched the ruffle and replaced it with thick straps (you can’t really tell from the pictures, but the straps fold in the back like a kimono. This happened because I took the scrap fabric from the sides of my A-line skirt and used those as my straps. Also, it creates kind of a faux-sweetheart neckline). Then I shortened it, because, let’s face it, the print is slightly overwhelming when it covers your entire body.

In front of an ancient shark jaw

This is also my first dress sans-pattern, thanks to the dress form my best friend Mandi got me! Let me tell you, it is soooooo much easier when you don’t have to pin it together on your own person and then try to remove it without stabbing yourself. Also, while I still suffer from pucker zipper, I managed to hide the zipper better this time. Note to self: Crazy prints hide zippers that pucker. You’re too distracted by orange sharks!!!
Overall, I like this dress. Two people actually complimented me on the dress, and Cisco says another woman said she wished she had this dress as she walked by us, but I didn’t hear it. Still, I trust him.
Of course, the greatest test was sitting in the soak zone. I got wet, and by the time the show was over, I was dry, which is pretty darn impressive! Way to go, shark dress. Way to go.