Perhaps I have a problem with over-thinking the fabrics I work with, but I have always felt that patterns and prints carry distinct tones and even messages. Just as colors communicate and affect moods, so do patterns and color arrangements speak about the person wearing them. The trick as a seamstress is to cultivate the proper message.

Florals are my particular bane and burden. How often have you looked at floral-- perhaps something your mother holds up for your approval from across three clothing aisles-- and wanted to like it? I want to like florals, and indeed, I make myself purchase fabrics printed with over-blown roses and wildy lilies and whatnot out of discipline. But there is a distinct reticence. Too naive? Not quite dignified?

The solution, I have decided, is to treat them with a teensy bit of sarcasm. Add a bit of quasi-feministic eyebrow cocking and you're in business.