La Dame aux Camélias and a dress

Miss Alice Cat is notoriously camera shy, so it’s not often she’ll sit and let you take a photo of her.  And when she does she’s not necessarily gracious about it.  Hence the very grumpy face here.  This may have been exacerbated by having just been turfed out of bed and hoicked out of the house for the day.  I’m not sure.  But I am sure she’s not overly thrilled.  Despite outward appearances she’s been much more affectionate of late, verging on sweet.

She must be mellowing as she creeps into old age.

On another note, if you cast you mind back through the mists of time to last September, you’ll recall that I did a short course of workshops at our local college.  One of the projects I worked on was Simplicity 2798:

Well, I know that I said I needed to slow down with my sewing and produce better made and fitted garments, but really, this is ridiculous.  So I finally cracked on and did the last bits and its finished:

I know the photo is a bit bizarre but we were in a rush, the light was awful, Mr S came over all artistic and this was the only one in which I look remotely human.  So you’re stuck with it.

Back to the dress.  Whilst I’m not sure that I’ll make this again, it is ridiculously comfortable.  It’s a heavy double knit jersey from Fabrix.  I used the D cup sizing and this made the fitting sooooooo much easier.  Why, oh, why can’t every pattern have this option? I just needed to take in a little across the yoke and a little towards the armhole to prevent gapping.  But for the first time ever I have a sleeveless dress that doesn’t flap at the armhole, and for that alone I love this dress.

I think this is a good learning project for me rather than a go to pattern for the future.  But on these cold days it’s a perfect dress to be cozy in.

One more word to the wise – don’t attempt the pleated sleeve with any fabric that’s remotely bulky.  It won’t work and you’ll drive yourself mad trying to make it work.