2014: Begin as you do not intend to continue

Here we are at the start of a new year, and the first thing I've sewn is something for myself.

It's not really my intention to sew clothes for myself. I have a wardrobe full of lovely, too small clothes that don't get worn but are too good to throw out. I do not want to come to terms with this body shape, but in the meantime, for the sake of decency, I need to dress it.

But even that's not the real, honest truth. The truth is that I bought this fabric cause I liked it. I knew full well that neither of my kids would ever wear it, but I bought it nonetheless. So, putting aside the idea of a cushion cover (I know, it would be perfect for a cushion cover, I agree!) someone would have to wear the fabric and that would have to be me.

I was also thinking that I had the Diplomat dress fit right and it would be wasteful not to use that carefully twice drafted and adjusted pattern one more time.

This time I made the sleeveless, shorter view and I think I finally nailed the zipper!. I added length to the hem but not as much as I'd have liked as I was working with a remnant and used every last scrap to get this much dress out of it.

The fabric is undoubtedly linen, but since it's a remnant that's still a guess, and it behaved beautifully at the armhole facings and the zipper. It's quite a heavy weight fabric and is probably intended for cushion covers after all. I'm not really a florals kind of person and the printed flowers and the furnishing weight were making me think of a grandmother's sofa.

The colour, on the other hand, is very me. I think it's best described as "unwashed camel".

So now that you've got the mental picture of the inter-breeding of a sweaty ship of the desert and a settee, a picture of me wearing the dress will seem like welcome relief.

We certainly haven't had the hot summer weather that I was imagining when I cut this dress and it was far too chilly to wear it like this for more than a minute or two. That's OK by me, cause there's not enough dress there for me to feel really comfortable in it, and, in leaving the sleeves off it just doesn't quite sit right around my upper chest. I think I'm finished with the pattern now though and I don't imagine I'll be bothered to try changing it again.

Instead I just wore a cardi all day and felt great about everything!

That's better!