Dotty-Spotty

(excuse the wrinkles! This was day three of wearing it because I lurve it so very much!)

I made a dress! A day dress! A day dress than can transition into a slightly fancier or-at-least-as-fancy-as-quilting-cotton-can-get dress! And I like it.

So some of you may remember that back in the early days of this blog I had the above dress that I wore a lot. Like. A. Lot. It was one of the first "vintage"-y items I ever found that fit me, and it was cute and had probably been a maternity dress at some point. I actually always told myself I would keep it until I had kids, but that didn't happen, because I literally wore the thing to shreds. I was a pretty and somewhat rare shade of blue and had a gradient of sizes of white polka dots on it. I loved that dress. It was one of those items of clothing that you put on and just feel happier in. It was a very happy dress, and in it I felt like I could take on any problem the world threw at me. So a recentish trip to Joann found me in the quilting cotton section and I spied a fabric in the same shade of blue with a nice sized white polka dot and I immediately knew I should re-create my long lost favourite dress. I even found a sort of similar bodice pattern that I planned to alter to make like my dear departed beloved dress ( I cannot drive home enough how much I loved that dress).

I ended up using a different pattern than I had originally planned and I'm really glad because I absolutely adore the way this came out! The bodice is a modified Simplicity 1692. I used view C, but gave he back a super deep scoop and made the front scoop a bit wider(when I first tried it on after I finished it, my youngest sister asked me if it was on backwards and I said no and she said "well if you turned it around then maybe you could get a husband." I don't know where she gets this from. And then when I scoffed at her statement she said "I'm kidding. Women don't need husbands, just dignity." 9 going on Sassy. We've decided that Grace was a British Drag Queen in a past life.). The skirt is Simplicity 3688 minus the waistband, and with funky cool patch pockets I added. There's a side zip hiding in there and well I basically think this is the Greatest Dress Ever (and totally not maternity friendly, so this one will probably last me all eternity). I'm actually really tempted to go and buy a ton more of this fabric to save in case of the inevitable unfortunate coffee incident that will stain this dress at some point.

In other news, I got glasses! They're actually only for driving and TV watching, but sometimes I forget they're on. These aren't anything fancy, just some basic frames from the optometrist, but I quite like them. Plus they're grey so the go with everything!

I'm sure by now you've heard that my corner of the planet is going through a ridiculous heat wave right now and apparently I left all my sundresses in Europe. I'll say this, I really don't mind the fact that all the flowers are blooming and everywhere you go the air in my city is perfumed by the magnolias and orange blossoms, but I could do without the 95+ degree weather. So I expect that I'll be making many more of these little dresses as the summer lingers on. I'm actually really, really not looking forward to the real heat setting in. In February we had days that were hotter than any I had last July or August. Now I'm remembering why I always leave here...