Brittany Maresh

writer

My friend wanted the Donna Noble dress from Doctor Who Season Four Epsidoe Two, The Fires of Pompeii.  It’s a really pretty purple gown with gold embellishment.  I opted to do a full lining, though the pattern I bought did not recommend it.

Challenge: $40 spending limit.

Here are two of the reference photo I used (screencapped by the dress’s final owner, from Doctor Who, Season 4, Episode 2, The Fires of Pompeii):

Donna Noble Pompeii Dress in under $40
MATERIAL COSTS:

• 2 spools gold ribbon $5/2 on sale
• 5 yards fabric @ 4.00/yd on sale ($20)
• Thread $2 on sale
• Pattern $12 on sale

TOTAL COST: $39
I used McCall’s 2954 as a base pattern for this fantastic dress. I had to change the neck lines and sleeves, as Donna’s dress has a v-neck back and a v-neck front, as well as ungathered close-fitted sleeves. I also added the gold details at the neck and waist, as well as back details, including a folded ruffle that ran long-ways down the back. I had to play with the gathering on the back ruffle, as well as move some seams (including under-bust seams, which fell too high on the original dress), but I’m over all happy with the results.  The modifications were fairly straightforward.  The back details were the most difficult, but I molded the folding of the fabric off of Vogue’s Tom and Linda Platt V2847 (out of print) which I used as a base pattern for a wedding last July.

TOTAL TIME: 3.5 hours, including shopping.

Pictures of the final product are pending arrival at their home in the states, as I had no suitable sized models locally.

Every Halloween I go down the road and visit Anne, a great older lady whose grand daughter was in my class in 6th grade, and has off and on been a friend of mine ever since. She’s always got some silly new thing for me, and we sit and talk about books. She reads the same things I do, and I love hearing her stories. She likes mine too, which is why I visit her, and why I count her as one of my friends. I love baking things for her (though I have to be careful—I know she can’t have a lot of sugar).

She’s always so glad to see me, and tells me how proud she is about how I’m growing up, and hopes I’ll continue to be a good influence for her granddaughter. She laughs, and smiles, and she beads things, and she loves her animals, and she thinks the world is a great place, if you just know how to look at it right.

I found out last Friday that she’d been in the hospital, that she wasn’t doing well, and that she was unconscious and had been for several days. Today, I found out that they have scheduled her death.

She has a will, and we all know it’s what she would have wanted, but it seems so strange to me, to have a time of death for someone who is still alive.

I’m going to miss her enthusiasm and her joy, and her support. She was always so positive, and she’s had so many reasons not to be. It doesn’t seem like just a year ago that we were at her great-grandson’s funeral.

I know I should be positive, like she’d want me to be. She’s not suffering, and she’s leaving us all while we will still remember the good times, with her healthy and happy.

But I can’t help it. I’m sad. I want her to be there to e-mail when I finally get around to reading the new Dean Koontz novel, and for our silly Halloween tradition, and for when I bake too many cookies. She liked oatmeal raisin.

And mostly I want her to be there because she’d always be so glad about whatever stupid little thing I’d accomplished, and I’m not sure I know another person on the plant who could make you feel like three new words on a novel or having pulled out the scissors so you can get started cutting out the pattern for a sewing project is actually making major progress.

Sincerely,

Brittany Maresh

I’ve been re-reading Miss Snark for help on my dread query letter. So far, not so good.  The story’s there, I’m just not putting emotion into the query.   It’s harder than I thought, especially while trying to keep a quick and fun tone that will stick with you.  I like to think my main character has that kind of voice, where you can almost start to hear her just reading the first few pages.  I suppose that’s what every writer hopes they’ve accomplished, actually.   Something that will haunt you until you finish it, and then make you want to read on even more.  Thanks to the MSVWA I’m feeling particularly jazzed and ready to get some real work done.  Two of them are at least playing with the idea of working on a piece for a 2008 query submission, which makes me want to get mine done and out even more.

I’ll be working on my favorite dystopic novel,  tentatively titled Imperial Judges, during November.  I’m going to write the whole darn thing, along with two other stories, assuming my course schedule will allow for it.  It’s not insanity, it’s NaNoWriMo.  Possibly my favorite thing on the planet, or at least my favorite thing in November.

The weather up here, because it’s fairly noteworthy, overnight went from warm and sunny summer hit in August to that cooler dry leaves and rustling winds of crispy autumn air.  I’m pretty well flipped for All Hallows, Hallowe’en, All-hallow-even, Harvest, whatever you wish to call it.  I love orange forsting cupcakes with little pumpkins imprited, dried Indian corn and ghosts.  I’m already excited to start making popcorn balls, and even if it’s not as good as the real thing, some semblance of apple cider.  I suppose it’s proably too soon to actually buy a pumpkin.

Needless to say, All Hallows is my favorite holiday.  I want to carve a turnip or rutabaga lantern to go with my pumpkin, this year.  Scaring away all the little goblins, just like I tradition dictates.  Maybe I’ll cover all the mirrors, this year, too.  Tradition, or some such, honest!

I have a huge collection of Halloween books, too.  The Halloween Tree, The Littlest Witch, Jack the Pumpkin… plus the ghost stories.  I wish more people wrote ghost stories so I was not always tempted to do so!

Which reminds me, I need to get the Worst Witch series at some time.  I loved the show as a kid, and I hear the books are an enjoyable read, too.

In that vein, I can’t be the only one who misses the Disney Halloween special.  I don’t mean the cartoon specials, like Mickey’s Halloween or whatever. I mean this one and this one, though you can only get the shorter one, anymore.

I’m off to continue writing, for real this time!

-Brittany Maresh