It Starts with the Shoes

How do you usually decide on your next sewing project?  I usually look at patterns in my collection, look at my enormous fabric stash and get some RTW embellishment or design idea.  I don't "need" clothes to wear, I "want" something new to wear.  However, every so often I am caught and have to sew for an occasion...and this week is one of those situations.
Mr. Lucky (aka Steve) and I will celebrate our 23rd anniversary next weekend and just this week we decided to go to NYC and spend two days and a night.  It's a short, fun excursion (and yes, I will make calls in the garment district) mostly to see two shows and enjoy walking around town in early October.  We're taking the Megabus into the city and haven't even picked a hotel yet....watching Hotwire and Kayak daily for a deal.  I love NY (makes you want to hum, doesn't it) and am eager to just be there with the energy, sights, food and drama.  I am a city walker so generally I wear pants, a top and jacket and feel perfectly comfortable and appropriately dressed.  And I have plenty of choices for a typical day trip to NYC. But this is our anniversary trip.   Hmmm, I'd like to feel like a girl when we go to dinner and the theater on Friday evening.  Now, not like a Sex In the City girl, but I do want to wear a dress when we go out that evening...and dresses are not something readily available in my current wardrobe.  And that's why the title of this post.   I walk in NY, no taxis (I'm also cheap) and sometimes the subway.  So if I'm going to make a dress for this trip I have to start from the bottom up, literally.  Here are my choices, date night shoes that are comfortable enough for NY walking.

Now what to make that will go with the shoes, be appropriate for the weather and make me feel like a girl.  I've started working on sewing a dark brown knit dress length version of the Jalie 2788  twist top, overlaying my Mcall's 4652 dress to get the length and width correct.  It will be sleeveless and I think it will look nice with this silk faced silk organza over jacket from the Talbot's  clearance store a few years ago.   And a twist top always makes me feel like a girl.
The one annoying thing about this outfit is how short the belt became this summer.  I was vacumning my closet ( yes, I know, the dangers of housecleaning!) and the vacumn ate the silk organza belt.  In order to make the belt useable again, I'll have to remove the damaged 6 inches in the middle and piece it with a seam.  I think it's forgivable but it annoys me...no good deed goes unpunished.
The benefit of this plan is that I can make that dress in a day, which is a very good thing considering that my sewing room also happens to currently be under total deconstruction.

Plaster walls are being repaired and prepped before being painted again....I think they may have been painted right before or after we got married!  So I'm on a makeshift set up with equipment in several rooms right now.
Next choice shoes:

The other dress is one I've had planned but thought it would be more appropriate for our life in Florida.  We'll be heading down in about 4 1/2 weeks and the bright colors are more suited to the strong lights and resort wear look.  I'm using my T&T pattern, Simplicity 2409 , the dress length version that I made this summer.

These are medium weight silk panels from Fabric Mart, $2 each, that I bought last summer (warned you I was frugal) which I'll line with Ambiance.  But I'm less thrilled about this dress idea in NYC....and it will take more time to make this one in my constrained circumstances.  Of course, it would be nice to finish both and just take the dress to Florida rather than pack the fabric.
Will keep you up to date on the decisions.