All Work, No Play

When I decided I needed to upload this wonderfully delightful dress, I was shocked to see that it's been nearly a year since my last post! That certainly isn't indicative of my sewing time.  I still spend most of my free time working on something or thinking about working on something.  I'm still on the no RTW diet.  I think this is my 4th or 5th year!!  I have purchased sorority paraphernalia but if I could make it, trust me I would! LOL  Anyway, I will have to try to catch up a little with all the things I've made since October 2013!  And it's telling that my partner in crime, my daughter is also guilty of "failure to blog".  She too hasn't posted anything since October.  I happen to know she sews just about as much, if not more than me.  She just finished making a wedding dress!!  I will have to scold her as well!

So, about this dress.  It always seems that the item you put the least amount of thought, time or effort into turns out to be that great one! So, this fabric is a find from JoAnn's.  When I saw it I loved it and thought at that time that it would be a great dress.  After I got it home, I looked at it and really touched it and thought it might not be great as a dress after all.  JoAnn's labeled it "knit -jegging". Now I know what a jegging is - it's a combination jean and legging.  This didn't really look like the fabrics I've seen used to make RTW jeggings.  But, I had it and it would become something at some point.

Well, today (actually yesterday because it's 1:43 in the morning right now) I was watching football and thinking about the stress of work tomorrow (err, today). After my team won (Go Cowboys!!) I decided I needed something new.  I started out looking at this black ponte knit that I recently purchased.  So, as I "shopped" my pattern stash, I saw this

pattern.  I've had it forever and thought it would be perfect with this fabric.

I thought the fabric looked a little tie-died, a little graphic and just a nice departure from the typical knits.  So, within an hour or so (while still transfixed with football) I put this together.  Let me just say, I LOVE this fabric and this dress.  It is the most comfortable thing I own that I can wear outside the house! LOL.  Seriously, I'm going back to JoAnn's to see if there are any other patterns or solids that I can grab.  This dress could be my work uniform.  For nearly a year, I have been pretty consistently working out (about 5-6 days a week). I've lost some weight, although not even close to my goal.  But I've also lost a few inches and while I obsess with the scale, it's is nice to see that my clothes fit a bit better and that I am willing to make and wear things that I would never have made a year ago.  I'm not there yet, but this is taking me in the direction I want to go 

In terms of changes I made to the dress, this pattern calls for the dress to be lined.  I didn't want to line it.  I made a wonderful ponte knit dress from a Vogue pattern last year.  It was lined.  I have only worn that dress once or twice.  It was so daggone hot, I thought I was trapped in an iron lung when I wore it!  I'm always hot, so that should have been a clue that lining a knit probably wasn't going to work for me, while I still lived in the South!.  I wear sleeveless dresses and tops all year long and just add a jacket. So, I knew lining wasn't going to work for me.  Initially, I was going to use bias tape to finish the neck edge and the armholes.  But, because I was lazy and concerned that the bias tape might be too heavy for the neck edge and armholes and make them turn in, I decided against the bias tape.  So, after remembering that my twin needle hemming worked great on another knit dress I made some time back, I decided that would be good for this dress as well.

And so, that's how I finished it!  As I said, I love it, would make it 50 more times if I found interesting fabrics, so don't be surprised if you see another post or two espousing the wonderfulness of McCall's 6282!

I'm BAAAACK!!