Bravo TV announced last week that the next season of Project Runway will debut on July 16.  I watch very few TV shows, but for a fashion lover, Project Runway is a don't miss show.  Even non-fashionistas love it for the drama of the Parsons workroom!

I'm not sure which came first, the chicken or the egg:  the renewed interest in home sewing or Project Runway.  I know for my ownself, watching the show makes me want to dig out a pattern and go to work.  In fact, I recently decided that I needed a new sewing machine.  Considering that I've been limping along on my husband's grandmother's old Kenmore, I think I was overdue for one!

So now I'm working on my first major project, a dress for my niece's up-coming wedding.  I had planned on wearing my newly-found Harvey Berin dress, but I've just decided that it is just not festive enough.  So I went on an internet search for an early 60s cocktail dress that

1. Was not black.  2.  Was not dowdy  3.  Fit me. 

Now I've seen hundreds of these pretty little dresses in my time, but of course the moment I go in search of one I'm not going to find a single suitable thing.  So I look through some books for inspiration, and there it is being worn by Mrs. Kennedy on a trip to India in 1962:

From Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years  (You need this book)

My version will have this dress as its base:

Now to find the fabric!  I'm pretty sure I won't buy the same shade of orange..more likely something in the blue family.

I remember seeing that photo of Jackie at the exhibition at the Field Museum! It really is the epitome of what I think of as her signature style. Good luck on your search for fabric. And keep us posted on the sewing progress. It sounds terribly exciting and daunting for a non-sewist. I love the pattern you've chosen with those scoopy princess type seams on the bodice.