Of Birthdays, Jade Songbirds, and Haircuts in the Quarantine

I'm 41 today, which feels about right.  My body is getting older, and I can feel it (and see it).  But that's okay, really.  My body is my home, and I'm settled in for the duration. 

A couple of weeks ago, I fell in love with some cotton lawn on Hart's Fabric website, but paused a bit about the price.  The cost was above my usual comfort zone, but it was extra wide yardage, and I knew I could get a dress out of my usual yardage enough left over to make an Emerald or a dress for one of the girls.  I've been impressed with how lawn wears over time, so hopefully it will be a dress that sees lots of wear.

I knew that the Lepidoptera dress was a fail for me, and wanted to have one more lawn dress option in my hot weather closet because the heat is just never-ending this year.  It started around Memorial Day weekend, and there really hasn't been a break since--high humidity, temps in the 90s most days.  Gross.  It also means that while I can technically get more than one wearing out of my clothes, I generally don't like to because it is harder to get the fabric clean, which means it wears out faster. 

This summer reminds me of the summer of 2011, when we had six weeks of heat dome that included temps over 100 degrees plus high humidity.  I was 7-8 months pregnant with Birdie at the time and we don't have central AC (and in 2011, we only had one floor unit in the office/guest room to keep the computer cool), so it was a fairly miserable summer. She was born at the end of August, just ahead of Hurricane Irene (apt, given her personality).

But I digress, as usual.  So I bought the fabric (admittedly, somewhat impulsively, but I decided it would be a birthday dress) and made it up almost as soon as it arrived, shortly after finishing my husband's replacement kombu.  I've gotten away from florals these past couple of years, and while this is technically a floral, it is somewhat more botanical than ditsy print (and those colors!!), so it works. 

I did have to make it in stages because of how my sewing time was that week, but I even made my own bias tape for the neck binding!  I did the continuous method for the first time, using an 8x8" square and it worked a treat!  My husband spotted my bias tape maker case sitting on a cabinet after I was done and was intrigued.  

My only change to the pattern was to put a bit of elastic in the back of the waist ties for comfort.  I don't know why I didn't think of this before--my one complaint about this dress pattern is that while it is very comfortable overall, the ties need to be adjusted throughout the day because: woven fabric. 

So I split the waist tie in the middle, added about 11" of knit elastic to the gap, zig-zagging the edges to the elastic, and then ran it through the casing with a bodkin.  (I did this with Ponchik's Butterfly dress ties as well and it worked a treat). What a difference!  So comfortable, unbinding, but yet flattering waist-shaping.  I also think it doesn't shift around as much in the casing.  Perfect in disgusting heat. 

Incidentally, I cut my hair Monday, after being unable to get a haircut myself for probably two years.  I've been cutting the boys' hair every month or so since early in the lockdown, and cut my husband's hair once (that was nerve-wracking!) and cut the girls' hair over the weekend--just a little trim for them. 

My hair has gotten increasingly unwieldy not because of the length but because of the frizz and thinning.  I've had to get pretty creative to cover the areas where my scalp shows through.  I still do curly girl hair care, and it does help, but the ends were thin and scraggly, so I flipped my hair over after a wash and trimmed off about 1.5" all around, cutting carefully in sections.  My hair is so thin this wasn't too hard, but  I ended up cutting long layers in my hair by doing it this way. 

That said, the shorter layers actually look pretty good!  I probably just need to find a salon that is open (it is still hit or miss for that here; we aren't totally in green phase yet) and get the back trimmed up even more, because what is scraggly still is the ends on the bottom in the back and I can't reach that as well to get a nice even cut.  I'm wearing my hair up almost all the time right now anyway, so it's not that noticeable, but once it cools down, I'll probably want it down again.

I have no firm plans for today--maybe I'll put together my Cedar Sweater pdf at long last, or cut out some more gigantic undies (more on that in separate post), or work on something for a friend.  Or maybe I'll just knit in a chair and watch something.  Or forge on with Slezkine.  Maybe all those things!  The day is my oyster!

Refashions for Ponchik

I mentioned in my Emerald top round-up post yesterday that I had toiled the pattern last summer.  In general, I don't keep excess fabric around for such endeavors (although I have an old sheet that got holes in that I use for the purpose), but I did have a short yard of Rifle and Co. Birch rayon that I had bought at some point for refashioning my earlier Dottie Angel frock of the same, but ended up not doing before the dress left my closet for greener pastures.  I used the yard for the toile, but because the selvedges on Rifle and Co. are extremely wide and white (why??), I couldn't quite make the Emerald work as a wearable piece.  I had a similar problem with my Menagerie remnant and had to piece a bit of the side seam.

My main complaint about toiles is that you end up with fabric that is basically unusable for anything else, and it feels very wasteful to me.  The Emerald toile was just such a piece--I couldn't use it for anything else for me, and it seemed like a waste of decent fabric, albeit fabric I wasn't particularly keen to have in my closet again.

I decided to see if I could cut it down for Ponchik and add a skirt in a contrast fabric.  In my quest to find the perfect orange for my Poppy Rose skirt, I ended up with a skirt length of orange rayon-linen blend mystery fabric that wasn't quite the right orange for me.  

Fortunately, it went very well with the Rifle and Co. Birch fabric, so I cut a 12" length, seamed the sides, gathered it up, and popped it on the bottom of the (cut-down) top and Bob's your uncle.  (Well, not quite, but close enough).  I added a little self-cased belt too.  The nice thing about the contrast skirt is that I can cut it off and add a new one, or add another tier of fabric if it gets too short.  The top part is roomy enough she may get another season out of it if I do that.  She is in love with the dress and wears it constantly.

The other cut-down I did was to my Octopus dress.  I had made my octopus-loving girl a birthday dress a few years ago, and myself a matching one at the same time, but only wore mine a couple of times that year.  

It was really a bit too kitchy for me, so I've had it in the bin to cut down for her ever since.  She wore the original dress at least two summers (maybe even three) before we couldn't squeeze her into it any longer.  She's been longing for another octopus dress since.

I decided to cut it down from the top rather than cutting out a new pattern from the bottom, so I unpicked all the bias and kangaroo pocket, and pinched out the excess at the shoulders first, and then the side seams, which I think gave me more usable fabric to work with at the end then the usual way I cut down things for the girls.  I'll likely do this method again.

I think I ended up bringing the shoulder seam down 2", and in 2" all along the side seams, plus a bunch at the hem (14", maybe?)  I made a casing and waist-tie to mimic my own dresses this summer, and made the whole thing roomy and a bit overlong so she can get extra wear out of it.  I also made a matching mask at her request, out of the pocket piece.  She found it a bit hot compared to her normal jersey mask, however, so she might save it to the fall. 

Not a bad use of time and fabric!  I had made a small mountain of fabric leftovers to try and make stuff like this (and work through my fabric stash), but I realized a) the girls have enough clothes for now, and b) I mostly have enough stuff for now.  The only thing I may try to do is eke out another Emerald from the leftover Purple Violet Squish dress fabric.

A dress, a dress, my kingdom for a dress!

Well.  It's been a minute, huh?  I took a slightly impromtu trip with my kids to visit my parents last week, and am now catching up on everything.  It was a good visit overall, and good to get out of the city for a while.  But I can tell that the last months have taken a huge toll on me.  I went to Walmart with my mom to pick up a few groceries and the sight of bursting shelves and food abundance about did me in.  Call it post-Soviet-grocery-store-syndrome.

I had it when I visited the States for a brief visit while living in Russia, but this time was different and harder, somehow.  Because the difference is this: in Russia it might be hard to find some specific things, or to find them consistently, hence the авоська or perhaps-bags, but you can always find something in the stores.  The shelves weren't bare of staples like bread and flour and canned goods, at least not in the early naughts.  The late 90s was a bit more precarious, though, it must be said.  You just get used to the one brand of toothpaste, soap, tomato sauce, or whatever, and when presented with row upon row of options in the States, it proved overwhelming in a different way than the past three months of privation and stress about provisioning a household of six people, five of whom eat a lot. 

I think there was a little bit of feeling like I had been gypped in the quarantine.  If you feel like the whole country is suffering privation together, like it is for the common good somehow, you can put your head down and get on with things, but to suddenly understand that the privation is really only in specific places in the country, because of who knows what, that there is grocery abundance elsewhere, it is harder to sort that in your mind.  

But enough about that.  You're here for other things today, I'm sure, so I will give you a dress.  Perhaps you remember the first two iterations?  I wore them both a ton (although somehow never got a good photo of the second one), and was a bit sad to put the last one in the fabric bin to cut down for the girls because the style no longer suited.  I still love this fabric, and was kind of missing it in my closet, so I decided to try and refashion the dress into something that suited me better now.

I have a ready-to-wear dress that I thrifted last fall (see above) that I like the shape of quite a bit, and decided to model my refashion on that.  My only complaint about the RTW dress is that it is sleeveless, but I tend to wear it with something else over it anyway, so that is okay.  But for summer, I needed some kind of shoulder coverage for skincare reasons.  #burnsinthemoonlight  

Since the original S1080 pattern had cut-on sleeves that I had redrafted, I left those alone, but shortened them about 1/2" or so, since I didn't care for the volume or length.  I took off the kangaroo pocket, unpicked the tucks and back elastic, and shortened the dress considerably (almost 4 inches!).  With the fabric from the hem (I had no leftovers in my bin from making either version of this dress), I made a casing and waist tie. 

The main feature of the RTW dress I like is the casing and waist tie, and I used that dress as a guide for placement.  I'm pretty pleased with the outcome!  I won't say it feels exactly like me, but sometimes you just need a dress.

I do wish I had pockets, and I could make inseam pockets with plain fabric with the edge out of the little bit of matching fabric I have left.  But that is a project for another day and more mental energy.  For now, this is a good, easy-wear summer dress.  I made two more and will share those shortly.

Fit it Good

One of the unfortunate things about getting older is that silhouettes that worked when you were younger sometimes don't work as well, either because weight distribution changes, or your body becomes more sensitive in some areas.  To wit: the fit and flare.  I've long preferred this silhouette, as I think it is a flattering one for my figure (narrow shoulder and pear-shaped, with a large waist-to-hip differential), but I've noticed in the past year or two that I'm much more sensitive to pressure on my middle, particularly from waistbands.  It just bothers me in a way I can't really describe.  (I think Karen and Kerry have captured it well, though). 

Nope.

 That said, I've been hoping to find a shift dress that didn't look like a sack on me.  The other unfortunate thing about my particular proportions is that columnar dresses look really odd on me without some kind of waist definition.  But I don't want the pressure on my middle in the front, so you see the difficulty.  

This dress went through a lot of iterations to get to its current state. I think it was worth all the angst and ripped stitches in the end, as I think I finally have a shift dress block that I can make again and again.  

Not there yet.

 My main quibble is that the inseam pockets I originally installed were a rank disaster and gaped badly, making me look five miles wide across the hips, so this dress doesn't have pockets (wah!) But I think I might be able to address that on a future iteration.  

So, here's the sewing rundown.  I wanted a dress that would tie around the middle somehow and not be restrictive.  I also wanted a semi-straight skirt (not a gathered or sharp a-line variety).  3/4 sleeves would be a plus.  I had tried on a dress at LOFT this summer that tied only in the back without a lot of front shaping, and it was so comfortable and flattering.  I ended up not buying it because the colorway didn't suit me and I didn't think the flutter sleeves looked good on me, but I liked the overall silhouette.  

I decided to start with my Simplicity 1080 as a block, and modify from there.  I cut the sleeves 1/2" shorter, and straightened the skirt by a wedge of about 1" at the bottom, tapering to nothing about 12" up, and took about 4" off the length.  I left off all the bust and waist shaping and added inseam pockets using the Colette Moneta pocket piece (I admit, I've never gotten this particular pocket to look nice, which makes me think it is a drafting issue and I need to find a better inseam pocket pattern for when I can't anchor the pockets to a waist seam as on the M7353).  

Ta-da!

 I used the Carson sleeve pattern again since I knew it married well with the cut-on armscye of S1080 and was reasonably comfortable in a woven fabric.  I also made ties and attached them at the side seams.  I even drafted a proper facing for the collar!  After making the Emerald dress, I am kind of digging wide neckline facings that are sewn down--they look so nice.  Shocker, I know.  I'm the girl who always converts facings to bias if I can (and sometimes even when I shouldn't!)  

I don't have a picture of that iteration of the dress, because I never wore it like that.  I put it on, tried the ties different ways, and just could not get comfortable.  The sleeves looked schlumpy and irritated me, and the ties were even worse.  I tried them Obi-style tie, I tried tying in the back, just in the front, nada.  Felt and looked terrible. I threw the dress in the corner for a time out, and then went back to it a day or two later.

I took off the sleeves, added a double waist casing using 1/2" bias and 1/4" elastic, and thought that worked pretty well, even though I didn't love the way the elastic felt against my front, and the bodice seemed to flare out from the sides around the bust line in a weird way.  I wore it twice like this before tackling a final fix.  

I took the casing off the front only, and cinched the elastic to where I was happy with it and tacked the whole thing down at the side seams.  Then I took up the sleeves more than an inch (they are at least 1/2" shorter now than even these pictures) and took in the side seams another 1/4" from the armscye to the waist casing, taping to nothing at the waist line.  I'm much happier with the fit and feel of this dress, and I think it is close to the silhouette I was hoping for.  I can make different iterations of this dress for summer and fall and be very comfortable and happy. 

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.

May the Fast Be With You

Welcome to Clean Monday (aka, the first day of Lent)!  I finally made it to my foot doctor this morning after trying and failing to keep my appointment for the past six weeks due to the family illnesses.  My neuroma is still going strong, and I needed some advice on what to do next, since the three cortizone shots we've tried have failed.  (The answer: physical therapy and additional chiropractic treatment).  I've been unable to see my chiropractor since December for the same reasons, so I'm overdue for a visit anyway.

Onward!  Have you ever made something that you later wished you'd waited to make until you made something else?  My gray flannel dress is one such.  I wished I'd waited to conquer the sleevils in my dottie pearl plaid flannel dress before making this one.  

I really had wanted the gray flannel dress to have long sleeves when I originally made it, but I didn't want to go back and remake it from scratch.  In addition to being a waste of fabric and money, I have been wondering for a while if there was a way to add long sleeves on to an existing dress.  I had enough fabric to leftover to try (I usually don't) and decided to have a go at dropped sleeves.  This style of construction is very popular in ready-to-wear right now because it is easy to construct and quick for the fast fashion market (no pesky inset sleeves to mess with.  The construction is all flat and the shapes are mostly rectangular so there isn't much wasted fabric).  

I did this kind of quick a minute yesterday, so I didn't get a chance to press my seams.  I do think the dropped shoulder seam in particular would look neater with a good press, but I was so eager to wear it (and my appointment was early this morning) that I decided I would do it later.  So apologies for unpressed seam allowances!  The verdict: not perfect, but not a bad retrofit either.  It looks better rolled up to 3/4 length, but that's fine.  I can still wear an undershirt with it, but I can also go without one too.  I'm thinking about it for one of my mammoth plaid flannel dresses (the orange/green/blue one).

My method was to measure the sleeve opening and to compare that to the sleeve from the Green Bee Pearl sleeve minus the sleeve cap.  I needed to add about 1 1/4" to each side, and then taper that down to the bottom of the sleeve, plus 2" for length.  I removed the bias binding from the original sleeves, and applied the sleeves at the cap and then seamed up the middle.  I could have used just a smidge more width at the top to make the seam allowance a bit wider at the top, but overall it worked.  I would try it again as a retro fit, but I probably wouldn't make a dress to start with like this as I like the slightly slimmer sleeve cap of my Dottie Pearl pattern.

I've been looking for black boots like this for about a year, and finally found a pair on clearance at Payless (no less!) last week.  I was thrilled.  (The Troopas I found for $30 on ebay last spring probably contributed to my neuroma, so I can't wear them anymore.  I passed them on last summer)  

These are the Steffany boot by Brash, and they are pretty similar to the Tanner boots I tried a few years ago when I was still doing the 1940s thing.  I liked them, but felt they weren't right with my style at the time, so I returned them.  I do wish I'd kept them, as the toe box was slightly roomier than these, but I'm not going to quibble too much, given the price.  They are okay for what they are at the price point I was willing to pay.  I also like that they don't have a side zip. 

I found Birdie like this on Friday:

She said she was running a pet store or some such.  She had everything lined up on the window sill and was sitting on a pillow on the chair.  With her tutu and leotard, naturally.  Like you do.

I have a little tutorial on darning I'm going to share soon (probably later this week) as I've done a fair bit of it on my stockings this winter, and finally thought to photograph the process.

I wish you all a blessed Fast, and ask for your forgiveness. 

Dottie Pearl Flannel Dress

I present my newest Frankenpattern: the Dottie Pearl!  Now with set-in sleeves!  I must say, I am chuffed about this dress.  I've long wanted to adapt my dottie angel dress pattern (aka Simplicity 1080) for set in sleeves so that I could have a long sleeve option, but have, up to this point, been unsuccessful in doing so.  (My muslin attempts in the fall were spectacularly unsuccessful, such that I set the project aside in despair).

A couple of weeks ago, I was browsing fabric.com (like you do) and found this amazing plaid flannel from Robert Kaufmann.  It isn't from any of his flannel lines (I'm particularly fond of the Mammoth and Shetland flannels) or part of a larger collection, so I think it must be a one-off.  But I loved the colors, and the fact that it was yarn dyed (which means it is a woven with all the colors, rather than printed on one side, like my Geo Flannel skirt).  

I decided I wanted another plaid flannel dress for the cooler months (I'm seriously rethinking my Project 333 approach; I'll discuss more about it at the end of this rotation, I think.  I'm still percolating).  I also decided I was going to figure out sleeves, because I really wanted something that didn't need an undershirt.  It also had become A Thing, the sleevils.  I needed to just figure them out already.  (And for the record, I know how to set in sleeves and have done it many times, but I'm very picky about how set-in sleeves fit in a woven fabric, and that was the part I couldn't get right).  

Fortunately, I had two things in my favor: enough unloved fabric in my bin to play around with (I hate muslining generally, because it feels like a waste of good fabric, but I had a length I'd bought a couple of years ago that I've fallen out of love with, and was just sitting, taking up space), and also a pattern that seemed like might work to adapt with sleeves.

What I really wanted was my dottie angel frock with set-in sleeves.  But I started with the Green Bee Pearl Shift dress pattern (readers may remember my chambray fail with this pattern in the late summer).  I decided that even if the body of the dress didn't work, it might be useful to see if the sleeves and shoulders did work on me.  The Summer Jazz dress that I'd tried previously doesn't fit me well in the shoulders and arms, so I didn't want to try and tweak that fit.  The Pearl dress seemed semi-fitted enough to give it a go.  

My first mock up was to simply make up the Pearl dress as drafted, but I rotated the bust darts into bust tucks, and cinched the back with elastic, ala dottie angel, and added patch pockets.  I was happy with the fit of the sleeves and the shoulders, but the bust tucks looked really weird, and the dress just hung oddly on me.  As drafted, the Pearl is a swing-type shift dress; the semi-fitted stuff just wasn't working. 

For my second attempt, I decided to put the shoulder part of the pattern on top of my dottie angel and merge the two silhouettes.  I kept the neckline of the Pearl dress, and the shoulder and armscye, and merged it with the body of the Simplicity 1080.  I cut the Pearl sleeves at the long length.  The sleeves came out slightly short (they are more like bracelet length), but the rest of the fit was great.  I decided it was good enough to go ahead on the flannel. 

I will state for the record that this flannel was kind of a bug-bear to get lined up for plaid matching.  It kept wanting to go off-grain, and it is just loosely woven enough to slide around a little even with careful (and repeated) pinning on both sides of the fabric.  

I also had to get creative with cutting in order to get the dress cut out of the three yards I had.  (I turned one side of the selvage to the middle, just enough to get the dress out, and then cut the sleeves flat from the other side of the selvage.  I had plenty left to get the pockets out, and still have about half a yard in my bin).  

That said, all my sides match up pretty well (the shoulders, not so much, oh well.  Can't win them all!) and I'm quite pleased with the finished dress.  

I set the sleeves in flat, like you do with knits, and am very happy with this method.  It made lining up the side seams a bit easier too, I think.  I did trim the seam allowance on the sleeve cap down to 1/4" and zig-zagged all my edges to make the fit more comfortable.

The sleeves do look better rolled up a few times, but I'm okay with that.  I could taper them to the wrist more next time to get a more fitted sleeve.  I added 1" of length to the sleeve, but could probably stand another inch.  Word to the wise: I have extremely short Hobbit arms, so if you have normal length arms, and want long sleeves from this pattern, you will need to add quite a bit of length.  The "3/4" sleeve is more like elbow length, fyi.

Boo kept petting me this morning and oohing and ahhing over the dress, so at least someone likes it!  (He has a pair of flannel lined jeans and asked me immediately if it was the same kind of fabric as the inside of his jeans--smart kid!)  I'm working on a simple black cowl that I hope to wear with this dress soon.

I have some spring projects that I'm actually excited about making up--I've been a little burned out on my 1080 dress pattern for a bit now, and this gives me the variety I've been craving.  I also have a knit dress pattern I'm going to try (thanks for the idea, Masha!) and some Art Gallery knit fabric burning a hole in my bin to use with it.  I'll have to pull up my big girl panties before I do so, however, as knits still make me crazy.  Sounds like a good first week of Lent project, right?  (kidding)