Inspired or copied?

I really, really, wanted to make a jacket to go with the red dress. But I won’t. Not yet anyway. First, I’m going to make another red dress. A sleeveless jewel neck sheath that will look like the Barrie Pace dress. Prompted by Carolyn who asked about the first dress: ”is it inspired by the Barrie Pace dress or have you gone in a different direction?”, I started thinking. And decided that the answer is yes to both. Yes, it was inspired by the Barrie Pace dress, and yes, I went off in a different direction.

After further reflection, I realized that I rarely, if ever, copy anything exactly. That’s because I rarely, if ever, like the garment as is. Usually I like certain features that I duplicate and then change the rest. I have always admired those sewing fashionistas who look at a designer garment and duplicate it almost stitch for stitch, in a similar fabric, so that it’s hard to tell the difference.

For me, the process goes something like this: Oooh, I like this safari jacket, I’m going to copy it. I want one exactly like that… Beige makes me look half dead so I’ll make it in dark gray… I don’t have any dark gray cotton so I’ll use wool… I’m not too crazy about the single waist dart, I prefer the side and waist dart combo, so I’ll have to work that in… Those epaulets will make my square shoulders look weird so I’ll leave them off… I have the perfect pewter buttons for it, too. The horn ones on the original are nice but they wouldn’t work with this wool…

The result: “inspired by ___, not at all like it”.

It’s almost like free-associating, really. Or maybe I’m weird.

Back to the dress, though. I’m working on the pattern now. Hopefully, I’ll have time to sew it up this weekend. And maybe, just maybe, it will look a lot more like the dress that inspired it.