Alterations and Rescues, part the second

So.  I mentioned earlier that I had some striped knit fabric from Tilly's shop.  With the British exchange rate, this fabric wasn't cheap for me, and I forgot that I only bought a meter and a half because the price was so high.  I guess I thought about it for a shirt when I was buying.  Anyway.  I tried in vain to figure out a way to get a M7353 or even a knee length Coco out of it before deciding I just needed to cut it for a shirt-length Coco.  

I had to reprint my Coco because in a fit of spring cleaning a couple of weeks ago, I accidentally tossed my old taped together pattern.  Argh.  At least it was digital.  So I retaped the whole darn thing and cut out the shirt last Saturday in a fit of pique.  

Never cut or sew anything in a fit of pique.

I ended up sewing it later in the afternoon (also in a bit of a pique, not about the sewing but about other stuff at home) and was eager to wear it.  I was home sick the day I took these photos, and I have to say, the shirt was not a success.  It was too big overall (despite my careful sizing) and the neckline came out miles too wide.  It gaped badly at the front and slid off my shoulders constantly.  The extra fabric around my hips didn't help matters either.

I've made this pattern several times at this size and not had a problem before, so I don't know what happened.  I tried darts in the back neckline to cinch it in, but it didn't really help.  The shirt just annoyed me.  It was also a weirdly long length, and flared a lot around the hips.  I suppose it would look better with pants, but we all know my pants situation.  

I probably didn't need to grade it out a size, but I've had such mixed success with Tilly's slopers that I was paranoid.  Lesson learned.

The shame is that it was such an expensive fabric, I really hated to waste it, but the shirt was just not wearable for me.  I HAVE REGRETS.  I thought about giving it to a friend with wider shoulders, but in the meantime, I started thinking about ways to use the selvage because it was so expensive.  This fabric was only 44" wide, so there wasn't much left to work with, but I thought I might be able to get a little girls' dress out of the scraps.  I started fiddling with the leftovers and quickly realized there wasn't enough there to work with.

So then I started thinking about just cutting up the shirt to make into a dress for one of the girls.  Once I thought of it, I couldn't get it out of my head, so off I went with my shears (Meg March is sitting on my shoulder this month, it seems).  

I did manage to get the dress all cut out (I cut the sleeves from my shirt sleeves, and the skirt section from the body of the shirt.  I got the bodice out of the selvages, and will have to seam them in the middle).  I don't have anything to show for it yet, but will take a photo when the dress is done.  

While I was puzzling that out, I decided to see if I could get a dress out of the selvages from my Triangle dress, as there was a lot of fabric left.  

I fiddled a bit with it and cut out a dress from that.  It ended up tunic length, because of what I had to work with, but Birdie is thrilled!  She wore it two days already this week.  (And yes, I wore my dress to match her one of the days.  It was awesome).  I used the Gloria dress pattern from an etsy seller.  I've made it before for Ponchik.  I also now have a long brown sweater to wear with my dress and I'm super happy with my sweater situation right now.

On to the Menagerie dress.  I wrote that I made a bunch of alterations to this dress after wearing it a few times in the hopes of making it work better for me.  I shortened the sleeves and hem, cinched in the back elastic and moved the pockets up several inches.  It does look better, I think, but I'm not feeling it style-wise this year.  I guess this just isn't my year for rayon.  I'll probably stick it in my bin and wait for it to feel better to me.

I said to a friend recently that my spring sewing sets the tone for the rest of my year, sartorially speaking.  That was an interesting discovery for me.  I realized that I do the bulk of my sewing at this time of year, since I sew a lot of the girls warm weather clothing, and there are holiday outfits to make (I have my Pascha dress cut out, but not sewn yet--eep!)  I don't have a lot of sewing to do for myself (although I keep giving myself projects, because I have patterns I want to try--Carson Dress, I'm lookin' at you, kid).  I had the girls do a big try-on of their summer stuff from last year and discovered that I don't have as much to do for the girls this year (which is not a bad thing, on the whole).  

My main takeaway is that my life has a lot of sharp edges right now, and my clothes need to be soft and warm and forgiving as a result.  So I want lots of knits, loose silhouettes, and cozy things.  I'm rewatching a lot of Nicholas Sparks films lately because they are soothing to me (even though they aren't the best films on a number of levels.  I just find them enjoyable, even as I notice the flaws).  I discovered the wonderful Cowboy Junkies as a result of one film (they are a Canadian folk/country/blues group) and have been listening to them the last day or so.

I've done only a portion of the reading I meant to for Lent, and didn't get to as many services as I planned (I was stymied by the weather on several occasions, but also by sickness.  I've been fighting a viral infection in my face for almost a week now and I just have to pace myself).  So it goes.  Each Lent is different.

Lenten Cakes

I made a couple of Lenten cakes lately for guests and for St. Pharnourios (because: lost things) and thought I'd share them. 

The first was a spice cake with maple glaze frosting made for dinner with some friends.  I wanted to make something with applesauce instead of eggs, so I cast around for a recipe that used it.  There are a lot of recipes to choose from, but I used this one because it had no exotic ingredients, and I could adjust the spices to my liking.  I don't care much for nutmeg, so I always reduce it or omit in these sorts of things.  I ended up putting in 1 tsp of cinnamon and 1/2 tsp ginger and 1/4 tsp nutmeg.  I also used 1/2 cup brown sugar, as I don't like a ton of sweetness.  The maple glaze was about 1/2 c. powdered sugar, 2 T. maple syrup and 1T.  coconut milk with a tiny bit of margarine (maybe a tsp), melted on the stove and drizzled over the top.

It was very tasty and lovely when warm!  (It didn't improve with age, however, so I recommend making a half recipe if you can't eat it up within a day or two).

image via

The second was the Phanouropita that is traditionally made after asking the saint to help with finding something.  In this case, it was several lost reading logs over several days, as we've just come away from our school's annual Read-A-Thon fundraiser.  It is an intense two weeks in our household, as Piglet in particular is very competitive about it.  Both Boo and Birdie's daily logs went missing over several days and after finding them both in succession after asking the saint's help, I knew I needed to make the bread!

I have made this recipe many times (I always make a half recipe because it doesn't keep well, and a half is exactly two desserts for the family).  My usual changes are to omit the nuts and put in frozen berries along with chocolate chips and occasionally raisins.  This time, I made a half recipe, used brown sugar instead of white and used frozen cherries along with chocolate chips.  I usually don't glaze it, but I did make a quick powdered sugar+lemon juice+water glaze in a bowl and drizzled over.  I thought it improved the cake a lot.  It usually doesn't taste that great the second time, but it was still okay the second day with these changes (I also rewarmed the cake the second day, which helped significantly).

Triangle Dress

I don't really know what to call this dress, except that it is covered in triangles, so there you go.  (For reasons known only to the Riley Blake designers, the fabric is called "Giraffe Crossing #2", but that seemed like a silly dress title for a grown up garment, so Triangle Dress it is).  

It's a bit different than what I usually go for, but I actually like it a lot.  It is a bit of a closet orphan at the moment, as I don't have a warm sweater that goes properly with it.  I found a brown sailor collared cardigan on Thred Up that should come next week.  Hopefully that will work.

I went for this fabric because I've looked at it several times before (and almost bought when I was still trying things out during the fall of 2016).  I happened to find it on clearance for $8/yard at a fabric shop I've never patronized before, so I snapped up my three yards quick-like.  I have worked with Riley Blake's jersey before and generally like the results.  

My Market Floral Zadie was from Riley Blake, as was an unblogged Coco pajama dress.  So I was reasonably certain this would work with my now-beloved McCalls 7353.  (Seriously.  I'm scheming ways to make this work as a short-sleeved summer dress).  

 I have nothing to note about the construction--I made it up exactly as I did the other two, and realized that my clever plan to trim the pocket seam allowances at the waist wasn't going to work, so I went ahead and trimmed them the same way I did on the other two. (That is to say, I trimmed them after I attached the skirt to the bodice, but before making the self-casing).  I made almost no attempt to match the horizontal lines of the triangles, in part because I thought of it too late, and in part because I think they aren't printed in a straight line (as I found out when I tried to match the skirt sides).  In any case, the print doesn't have strong horizontal lines, so it is okay.

I used some fold over elastic from the stash because I like how soft and comfortable it is.  I used to use it on my Frankendress pattern in the waist casing and liked it very much.  It has enough elasticity to cinch in a bit, but it is soft enough not to feel hard against the skin.

I have some celadon yarn in my bin that will make a nice cowl to go with this dress at some point, I think.  I also have my red one too.  I think my yellow Chinook might work as well.  Oh the possibilities!

In other sewing news, I did some alterations to my long sleeve rayon dresses.  The Menagerie dress felt too long to me, and the sleeves were a problem since I removed the elastic--they really flapped around and got in my way.  So I shortened them 3.5" to 3/4 length, and left enough for a turn-back cuff, and I shortened the hem 2".  I also cinched the back elastic 2" and raised the pockets up 2" (although one of them is slightly off in placement, so I'll probably have to move that one again).  I do like the fit of it better now but I'm a little meh on rayon at the moment.  I just sweat so much in it (like cold-sweating, which is the worst) and don't feel good in it during cold weather.  

The painted roses dress just doesn't fit right, and so despite shortening the sleeves to 3/4 length and taking up the hem 1/2", I'm still unhappy with it.  <le sigh>  I've also been supremely unsuccessful at finding a wool black cardigan to replace the one I have that I don't like (it is too thin, has too much nylon in it so I cold-sweat constantly, and it is a frumpy length on me).  On the other hand, if the painted roses dress is et finis, then I don't really need the cardigan.  So win-win??

 I guess I can be grateful I didn't stuff my rotation with rayon dresses!

World Poetry Day

It is world poetry day today (who knew?) and I thought I'd share one of my favorites:


Broken Love - Poem by William Blake


MY Spectre around me night and day
Like a wild beast guards my way;
My Emanation far within
Weeps incessantly for my sin.

‘A fathomless and boundless deep,
There we wander, there we weep;
On the hungry craving wind
My Spectre follows thee behind.

‘He scents thy footsteps in the snow
Wheresoever thou dost go,
Thro’ the wintry hail and rain.
When wilt thou return again?

’Dost thou not in pride and scorn
Fill with tempests all my morn,
And with jealousies and fears
Fill my pleasant nights with tears?

‘Seven of my sweet loves thy knife
Has bereavèd of their life.
Their marble tombs I built with tears,
And with cold and shuddering fears.

‘Seven more loves weep night and day
Round the tombs where my loves lay,
And seven more loves attend each night
Around my couch with torches bright.

‘And seven more loves in my bed
Crown with wine my mournful head,
Pitying and forgiving all
Thy transgressions great and small.

‘When wilt thou return and view
My loves, and them to life renew?
When wilt thou return and live?
When wilt thou pity as I forgive?’

‘O’er my sins thou sit and moan:
Hast thou no sins of thy own?
O’er my sins thou sit and weep,
And lull thy own sins fast asleep.

‘What transgressions I commit
Are for thy transgressions fit.
They thy harlots, thou their slave;
And my bed becomes their grave.

‘Never, never, I return:
Still for victory I burn.
Living, thee alone I’ll have;
And when dead I’ll be thy grave.

‘Thro’ the Heaven and Earth and Hell
Thou shalt never, quell:
I will fly and thou pursue:
Night and morn the flight renew.’

‘Poor, pale, pitiable form
That I follow in a storm;
Iron tears and groans of lead
Bind around my aching head.

‘Till I turn from Female love
And root up the Infernal Grove,
I shall never worthy be
To step into Eternity.

‘And, to end thy cruel mocks,
Annihilate thee on the rocks,
And another form create
To be subservient to my fate.

‘Let us agree to give up love,
And root up the Infernal Grove;
Then shall we return and see
The worlds of happy Eternity.

‘And throughout all Eternity
I forgive you, you forgive me.
As our dear Redeemer said:
“This the Wine, and this the Bread.”’

Alterations and Rescues

I mentioned at the end of my winter rotation that I'd done a pretty through go-through of all my clothes and had taken a bunch of things out permanently, either because they were worn out (I recycle worn out textiles at H&M), or the wrong size, or just didn't have a place in my closet.  I either donate or consign those things, depending on whether it is ready-to-wear or me-made.

I was all set to take a big bag of textiles to recycle yesterday, and I rescued my Dandelion Zadie from last year.  If the theme of my spring rotation is anything, it is what is comfortable on my body right now.  I generally go for comfort, but my comfort needs are pretty high right now.  I just can't tolerate anything that feels even a little bit off.  I decided it still had another season or two in it, and promptly wore it today.  It really is a good dress, and it fits better this year (it is perhaps slightly too big, but the fit is forgiving).  I'm also unlikely to sew another one, since I really do not enjoy the construction process at all, so I figure I should enjoy this one while I can.  (Besides, Art Gallery jersey is expensive--it has even gone up in price since last year!  I want as much bang for my proverbial buck as possible).

Another dress that hit the donation pile was my Daisy Chain dress.  There were a ton of reasons why this dress went into the pile, but mostly, I was tired of all the fuss of the particular layers that had to go into making this dress work well.  

It was a garment that required a bunch of unique pieces to look right, and I'm trying to streamline things as I go along.  I prefer sweaters that go with more than one skirt, and undershirts that go with more than one dress.  It doesn't always work out, but this dress was particularly challenging in that way.  I decided to experiment with making it into a skirt, to see if that would raise its versatility factor.  (I did feel a bit like Meg in Little Women, and worried that I was just cutting all my clothes to pieces for no good reason, but nothing risked, nothing gained either).

I first tried my experiment on another dress that I had designated for the bin, and it didn't work out at.all, so I converted that dress plus another one into simple elastic waist skirts for the girls.  At least the experiment wasn't a total waste.  My goal was to get something close to the Everyday skirt in fit and silhouette, but without recutting the entire garment as I didn't have enough fabric to do so.  I measured up from the bottom about 27" and cut straight across (after removing the pocket) and then cut two waistbands and small patch pockets from the bodice of the dress.

The problem with the failed skirt was the fit around the waist--it was oddly loose in the front and hung weirdly in the back.  I figured out what the problem was after having a bit of a think, so I tried a new approach with the Daisy Chain.  (I had cut the waistbands using the Everyday skirt pattern, which wraps around to the back slightly before going into the elastic section, so I had to mimic that fit with the different side seams on this skirt.  I also shortened the skirt 2" from the dress length because I'm weird about skirt lengths).

It did work, and the skirt fits nicely, but I'm still kind of meh on the whole thing.  I dunno.  Maybe it is has just had its time in my closet.  Two heavy seasons of wear is enough, maybe? (Although, looking at the photos, it is kind of growing on me, so perhaps I'll just stick it in the winter bin and reassess next year.)

Finally, the Flannel #1.2 dress.  I mentioned that I remade this in the fall and wore it a LOT all winter.  I got compliments on it all the time and I was happy to wear it, but the pockets bugged me.  I felt that the scale of the original pockets didn't fit the scale of the plaid, so I pulled them off, cut them down quite a bit and reapplied them. 

I'm ever so much happier with it!  (And this is how I generally wear this dress, unlike the original photos of it, which were pretty bad, I must admit).  I almost added it back into my spring rotation, but decided to soldier on with what I have right now.

We are bracing for another big snowstorm today and tomorrow (predictions are all over the place, but it seems like we can expect about 3" today and up to 9" tomorrow).  I predict another snow day for the kids, so I plan to take today for a quiet knitting and Netflix kind of day to prepare.  I've not had a lot of downtime since the fall, and I'm feeling it.  I probably should be using the day to write, but honestly, it's just not the day for it.  I feel like I don't have enough bandwidth for this week.  So I'll be off to my little chair, needles in hand.

Stretch Matters

I should start by saying that I almost binned this dress.  

But before I tell you why, let me tell you the what.

This is another McCall's 7353, aka my new favorite dress pattern.  I used it for my current favorite thing: the Mille Fleur dress, and am now looking around at knit fabrics to make some additional dresses in the fall.  (spoiler: I already made another one for this spring)

So the pattern is fine.  But this fabric.  Let me tell you something about knit fabric (and I'm sure anyone who works regularly with knits will know this in spades).  They are not all the same.  Sometimes even knits within the same collection handle differently.  Which means every. single. time. you make a knit pattern, you are throwing a dart in the dark.  That's mostly why I've stayed away until now.  My frustration threshold for that sort of thing is pretty low.

But!  I ordered this spruce green cotton knit fabric from Hawthorne Threads, and I think it didn't have the stretch percentage listed, so I just assumed it was a regular jersey knit, going by the description.  Well.  You know where assume gets you right?  Right.  Turns out this knit fabric is so tightly knit as to handle more like a woven.  As in, it has almost no stretch at all.  I've handled quilting cottons with more stretch than this stuff.

Despite my misgivings, I went ahead and prewashed it, and forged ahead with the pattern, hoping for the best (the pattern wants about 40% stretch on the fabric, by the way).  I knew I should adjust my seam allowances to account for the lack of stretch, but I ended up with barely there seam allowances.  I was nervous that either the dress would feel like a sausage casing (I had checked the bodice fit before putting the neckline facing and finishing the sleeve hems) or that it would look too big, or just fit oddly.

My fears seemed to be realized when I tried it on a few nights ago after changing out of my day clothes for my pajamas.  Word to the wise: never try on a dress that is meant to be worn with proper undergarments to get an idea of fit.  Disastah.  The dress looked unbelievably sad.  The skirt section bagged out in a weird way, and the top just looked...deflated.  It also had just the barest whiff of pajama about it.

I folded it up and put it in a bin to think about what to do with it.  The fabric wasn't especially cheap and I hated to waste it.  I had cut the dress out such that I have enough left to make something else out of (maybe a girls' dress or a t shirt).  But man.  That lack of stretch.  Imagine my surprise when I tried it on again a day or two later (with proper underpinnings) and it looked pretty good!  And didn't feel awful on my arms!  (To be perfectly fair, it isn't quite as comfortable in the sleeves as the Mille Fleur, but neither do I feel like an overstuffed sausage).

So I'm actually quite pleased with this dress and am happy to add it to my rotation.  I did a bunch of small alterations to other garments yesterday and took a few photos this morning.  I'll share those soon.  I also made another M7353 this morning (out of a Riley Blake printed jersey that I found on clearance) and will try to photograph that one in a few days.

Yay for knits!  

(And yes, I'm aware that it is St. Patrick's Day on the New Calendar today, but we Old Calendar types don't observe it until March 30.  Besides, as I've written in previous years, 10 years of living around the corner from a bar that is on the Erin Express bacchanalia has really ground out any happy feelings I used to have about celebrating the day).  

But the dress is green (and as Lynn pointed out today, wear the green you like!)  And I do like me some green.

Clothes are Hard (and so is life)

I think the post title says it all.  Also: Lent is hard.  I feel like my life is hurtling by at breakneck speed lately.  It's been one thing after another, really.  I can't seem to get my feet under me.

I suppose that is why my clothes seem all wrong.  I was excited about my spring rotation for the first few days and then the novelty wore off.  I seem to process my inner discomfort in whatever covers my body.  Take this dress:

You might remember it from last spring.  It was a little different then.  Earlier this month, I experimented with adding in-set sleeves to my Eggplant Birch dress (as it was scheduled for the block anyway.  I figured if I messed it up, it wasn't a big loss).  The Eggplant Birch sleeve hack was mostly a success (but an undocumented one), and I decided to try altering my Painted Roses rayon next.  I've never been happy with it as a short sleeve dress, and really wanted more long sleeved dresses in my closet for spring.

So.  The sleeve hack on this dress went better than on the Eggplant one because I figured out a few things on the first try that I righted on the second.  But I'm not sure I like the result.  I think my main problem with the dress is that I don't like my black cardigan very much because it ends at a weird spot on my hips, but it is the only warm layer I have that goes with this dress.  I've been unsuccessful in finding a long line replacement and don't really want to knit one just now.

I think I need to take the elastic out of the sleeve casing as well, as I just don't like how it feels.  I did the same on my Menagerie dress and was much happier with it by day's end.  It's an easy fix, thankfully.  I ended up taking this off and wearing something else yesterday.  I'm doing that a lot lately--putting on three outfits before settling on something for the day that doesn't make me feel nuts.  I don't like it.

I'm slightly frustrated with myself and my body lately, which probably contributes to the problem.  The five or six pounds that I put on just before the start of Lent has stubbornly refused to budge and I can't really figure out why.  I'm ground down by ten months of constant foot pain (that has gotten worse since starting physical therapy for it), and am starting to think that it will always be this way.  The kids have been a near-constant challenge since December.  So there's that.

I'm not sure if I will wear this dress, to be honest.  I'm not going to alter any more of my rayon dresses for now (mostly because I wanted to keep one short sleeved one for the end of the rotation when it tends to warm up a bit).   

I find myself craving some different clothes, but I don't know what, exactly, since I am uncomfortable in anything shorter than my knees and I don't like pants.  My proportions are just mumsy enough to look weird in the straight-up-and-down silhouettes that are trendy.  

Maybe I'm just craving a different me.  

The bright spot in my closet is my Mille Fleur dress, which seems just right to me at the moment.  I bought some spruce green jersey to make another one, and want to experiment with some dark gray ponte for a skirt.  I'm thinking about sewing for the girls' summer wardrobes too--I was given some fabric by a dear friend who was destashing that will make some nice dresses for them.

Ponchik requested a cupcake dress for her birthday in May, so I have some fabric on order for that (it was suprisingly difficult to find cupcake fabric for her dress--so much of it was either a weird color for a dress, looked too photorealistic for clothing, or was just plain ugly).  Hopefully she likes what I ended up buying.  I'm considering cutting down my Octopus dress for her since her beloved birthday dress from last year is too small now.

I got an e-mail from Hawthorne Threads a couple of days ago about Cloud 9's new double gauze line.  It is gorgeous, and the floral print is especially pretty, but I hesitated a long time over ordering and in the end decided to wait.  

I made two dresses last summer out of double gauze, and I wore them a lot, but I find every year that summer stymies me.  (And looking at the photos, I find I like them again, go figure).  I always end up hating everything in my summer rotation.  This has a lot to do with the weather, as I wilt in the heat, and never am happy with my clothes as a result, but a bit of it is some undefinable thing about hot weather clothing specifically.  I don't like to have bare arms and shoulders or knees, and the cultural visual norm for summer is all of those things.  So I never quite feel like I fit.

I suppose it is time to just experiment with some things and see what sticks.  

Menagerie Dottie Pearl Dress and Calligraphy Cardigan

Fresh off the blocking mat is my Calligraphy Cardigan!  I worked on this sweater in the fall and had mostly finished it before Nativity, but I set it aside for a few months to finish the Dusk sweater and a few other things.  I knew I wanted this sweater for my spring, and it just needed button bands and seaming on the sleeves.

So I put my shoulder to the grindstone and cranked out the button bands over the last few weeks.  I was slightly annoyed to discover that the recommended yardage was off by a ball, as I ran out of yarn halfway through the second button band (and I made the button bands an inch narrower than called for!)  I used the Chickadee yarn the pattern was written for, so I really don't understand what happened (and this almost never happens to me since I'm a tight knitter and usually have to size up on needles).  Since I bought the yarn almost a year ago, the dye lots were slightly different, so the one button band is slightly darker on the one half, but it is only noticeable if the sweater is lying flat.  

But it doesn't annoy me enough not to wear it!  I used 192 stitches for the button bands instead of the recommended 190 for this size, as that seemed skimpy to me.  (I cast on 3 stitches for every 4, which was about right).  The blocking really smoothed everything out.  I put it in the washer on a handwash cycle with another sweater and then laid it flat on my drying rack to block.  Since I didn't need to block it aggressively, this worked very well and I will probably do it again.  The bathtub method tends to make my sweaters grow in ways I don't always like.

I used some vintage buttons from my stash that almost exactly matched and I had 10, which was perfect.  I sewed the extra one into the side seam in case of a loss.  I really like this long line style of cardigan right now (with the sailor type collar) and cast on another almost immediately.

And the dress.  This is Cotton+Steel rayon challis, from one of the collaborations with Rifle and Co.  (It is part of the Menagerie line).  I made it as a Dottie Pearl dress, and I think forgot to taper the sleeves at the bottom when I added the 2" of extra length, so they were really flapping in the wind because of the drapey rayon.  So I decided to cinch them with a bit of elastic at the wrist and create a small bishop sleeve silhouette.  I don't think I would do this on every sleeve treatment, but I do like it on this dress!  (After wearing for a morning, I think I might try making the sleeve elastic slightly bigger.  It is slightly tight when worn under a sweater).

But overall, I like the fit of the dress, and the drape is really nice.  It is a shame that the small scale pattern doesn't show up at a distance, because it is quite interesting.  The dress is kind of a spruce green in the background, but it has blue flowers that sort of coordinate with the sweater, so I'm going to call it good.

Small patch pockets, as with the flannel version.  

Elastic sleeve detail.  I didn't do anything fancy--I just hemmed it as usual, and left an opening for the elastic.  I used 1/4" elastic that I use for the back cinch, and just measured my wrist loosely for fit.

You can see the print a bit better here.  If I was really on trend, I would have made this sweater in a mustard color to match the ferns in the dress (Cotton+Steel seems to use this particular shade in a lot of their prints), but I'm not cool that way.  That color doesn't look particularly good near my face.

And besides, blue has a bigger place in my closet.  Overall, I'm happy with this outfit--it is nice for the spring transitional weather, I think.

As for reading, I'm still re-reading Constantina Palmer's Scent of Holiness for Lent, Rodney Stark's Rise of Christianity (excellent sociological study about how Christianity came to be the main religion of the Western world; it has a lot of great information about how conversion works en masse), and I just started Esther Emery's What Falls From the Sky.  

We've had so many sick days, snow days, days off for holidays, church feasts, professional development days, etc. that I'm starting to feel like I'm in an endless summer break with the kids at home.  I haven't had a full week of kids at school since early December.  It is March 8. <sigh>

I did decide to work on the book from a different angle for a little while, to see if that helps me with some areas that I'm stuck on.  (I understand my male protagonist very well, and his flaws/problems/goals/ambitions, but I'm struggling with my female protagonist, and it is through her eyes that a lot of the story is told.  I have a good idea of what I want her character arc to be, but I'm having a hard time figuring out how to get from point a to point b.  Right now I have a lot of scenes that don't do very much to advance her story arc.  So: outlining and character story boarding.  And editing.  Lots of editing.  And staring at the wall a lot).

Linking with Ginny for Yarn Along!

Mille Fleur

I.love.this.dress.  Meet McCall's 7353, aka The Best Knit Dress ever.  I've been looking for a pattern like this for at least two years and not succeeding.  The Moneta was a rank disaster, the Coco looked like a pajama, the Southwest dress pattern didn't fit and I don't really know why, and the Zadie didn't ultimately work out (I wore my Zadies a lot last year, but they had issues, both in the construction and the wearing).

But this, my friends, is the unicorn of knit-dress patterns.  It has just the silhouette I was looking for, the construction is very straight forward and easy, and the fit is just what I wanted.  I was a little nervous to cut into this fabric, since I'd never made the pattern before, but I loved Masha's versions so much, I decided to just forge ahead.  I had bought this Mille Fleur fabric from Art Gallery last spring and saved it for a Zadie.  When I realized that the Zadie pattern didn't really work for me, I let the fabric sit, hoping something better would come along.

According to the packet on this pattern, I was between a 12-14 for the bodice and a 16-18 on the skirt.  Based on Masha's recommendation to size way down, I looked at the finished garment measurements (this pattern thankfully had them listed) and realized that I needed to make a straight size 6 (!!!) to get the fit I wanted. Even then, the finished measurements were at least a size and a half bigger than what I would normally wear.  I am not, nor have I ever been, anywhere near a size 6 in ready to wear, in any company, any sloper.  Nosir.  (This is one of my issues with patterns from the Big Four pattern companies.  The size you make is rarely the size listed on the packet, and it can be very very difficult to figure out what size to make if the pattern doesn't include finished measurements).

My other small beef with the Big Four pattern companies is that they pick terrible fabrics to make samples out of.  I never ever would have picked this pattern out of a book to make because the sample was just too ugly to see past.  The line drawings were pretty cute, but man.  That sample.  It doesn't fit the model at all, and it is just the ugliest fabric.  It's like they don't want to sell patterns or something.  Okay, end rant.  

There are a few wonky instructions--she wants you to finish the sleeve hems before seaming the sides of the bodice, and doesn't instruct you to trim the seam allowance on the underarm seam of the bodice before attaching it to the skirt, but overall, the construction is straightforward. The dress has lovely inseam pockets that are set into the waist seam (I love this type of inseam pocket construction because it keeps the pockets from flapping around all day long).  My only complaint about it is that it makes for a pretty bulky seam where the bodice, skirt, and pocket edges all comes together, and there aren't any instructions about the best way to reduce the bulk.  (And you can't trim the whole allowance because it forms the casing for the elastic).  I ended up kind of cutting away on the fly, but I'll do it differently next time.

My mods to the pattern (other than cutting a much smaller size) were to add 2.5" to the skirt at the bottom and to hem about 1/2" rather than the nearly 2" given.  I'm never quite sure why they give two lengthen/shorten lines when the skirt is mostly straight.  (The skirt for this is a very slight a-line).  I just added it to the bottom and thought it worked fine.  I also constructed the neck facing slightly differently than the instructions stated, but it all worked out in the end.  I really like the cowl neckline, but didn't want to fiddle with making one that was double, since this fabric is printed only on one side.

The only thing I might do differently is to slightly lower the waist line as it it currently sits right under my bust.  Larger busted ladies might need to fiddle with this a bit.  I didn't use the elastic guide included as I could tell it was going to be massively too short and instead just measured the unstretched elastic  around my rib cage with some seam allowance included.  I found out the hard way that using a stiff braided elastic was not the way to go with this dress.  I ended up pulling it out and using some soft fold-over elastic I had in the stash.  It made for a MUCH more comfortable dress.  The gathers around the waist line are a little softer with the different elastic, but I'll take that over the hard band around my ribs that the other elastic gave me.

I'm so pleased to finally have a knit dress pattern that I really love.  I have some striped knit fabric from Tilly's shop in my bin that I've been saving for the right pattern to come along; perhaps I'll make it up later this spring!

In other news, I finished my Calligraphy cardigan last night and am blocking it now.  It turned out so well!  I have to sew on the buttons once it is dry, but I'm looking forward to wearing it!  It is close in color to this dress, so I'm curious to see if they will look well together.  I'm planning to cast on another one today with the repurposed Jade wool.

I'm also trying to accept that I'm in a season in which I'm not going to get a lot of writing done.  I had sick kids home for six weeks solid, and now on and off for another week or so.  I'm ground down by it.  It is shaping up to be a tough sick season for our family (and we have had many hard years of illness, as long time blog readers will know).  

I'm still in pain every day, from the neuroma in my foot, and have come to the end of what internal medicine can do for it,  I'm pursuing physical therapy and additional chiropractic care for it, but I'm not hopeful about long-term relief.  My school pick-up routine just got a lot more hectic because the person who was picking up Ponchik every day left at the end of last month to pursue other work.  And there are the extra services of Lent.  I'm trying to dump everything in my daily routine that doesn't have to be there.

All these things take time as well as mental (and physical) energy, and take away from what I have left for the book.  I confess I've been a bit grumpy about it, as the book felt like something that was mine, something I was doing, that didn't have anything to do with being a mother, or a housekeeper, or a chief medical officer.  The upside is that I do have a great deal of the book written, and it will be there waiting for me when I have more time to spend on it.  Perhaps this time of latency will improve the story.  In the meantime, I'll have to be content with the small snatches of time I have for it.