That damn dress

Last week, I finally opened and prepped the pattern for a very EASY sundress for Miss E. I've had this adorable cartoon cat fabric for a couple of months, found the purrfect trim fabric, and sat on it while I did dolls instead. I was pumped. I got it all cut out in no time but the minute I started trying to follow the "very simple" instructions (yeah, right), I realized the problem with a $3 or $4 pattern. The illustrations are awful, showing only a little of the overall piece you're working on, and the written instructions are bleak. There's one partial sentence that covers about eight steps, and it's up to you to figure it out. That's not a challenge I enjoyed, so I slugged it out for about four days until The.Damn.Dress was finished. I about screamed when Miss E stated she did NOT like it and would not wear it ... but that faded away and the next day, she was elated to show it to my sister and refused to take it off on Tuesday.

I admit, it's adorable. You should see it on her, but I neglected to get a photo the whole day she wore it ... She had on red knit pants under it and a puffy-sleeved, short-sleeve brown t-shirt. She smiled ear-to-ear. :) Anyhow, the armholes are not right, but I never could figure out what I was supposed to do from the instructions, so I had to kind of wing it. Fortunately, it manages to lay well enough that you don't really notice, and it's not so bunged that she whines about lumpiness. The pockets are cool; I did learn to do a tuck on a pocket, and I can see using that for an apron sometime. And the ties on the top are a funky teardrop shape on the end, and that may come in handy.

I'm not sure if I'll ever try *this* pattern again, but I am happy with the final result. It just killed my creative mojo for a full week ...

Before the dress, I whipped out an adorable baby bib in just an hour, and that got me all fired up. Now I know I can make these for all of our friends' new babies -- yippee! (I also had to fix the tension on my sewing machine the week prior, so seeing these pretty little stitches made me so very happy. That was quite a lesson in patience.)