Poppies For A Weary Mind

Sorry about the protracted absence.  Our virus program ate our computer, and we've only just gotten it straightened out.  There's also been some personal drama (not the least of which was a broken tripod), and I can say with great certainty that 2011 is letting me down already.  Unfortunately, this also means that my sewing time has been drastically reduced, but I hope that this is, likewise, straightened out.

So, without further ado, here is my first finished garment of 2011, Simplicity 2580.  I finished this dress right after the new year, so my memory of this might be a little hazy.  I picked up this ITY jersey from Fabric Depot on a whim when my only purchase was supposed to be interfacing.  I loved it so very much for its bright colors and abstract poppy pattern, and I dug through my patterns searching for something that wouldn't complete with the happy spring flowers.  I was originally going to make View C but ended up using the cowl neckline from View D instead.  I'm glad that I did because I don't have to wear a cami under the dress for work.

Nephew J is making a cameo appearance.

There are a lot of things to like about this dress that have nothing to do with the snazzy fabric (although that's part of the attraction in my book).  It's simple, first of all.  Just seven pieces, and it would only have been six if I'd cut the skirt back on the fold which is entirely possible.  In fact, I'm not even quite sure why there is a center back seam in the skirt at all.  The self-facing of the top front is very neat and while I had a few problems picturing how it went together in my head, I just followed the instructions and trusted that this would all work out.  I followed the instructions as drafted, but had to do some futzing to get the folded portion of the cowl to line up with the finished back neckline without gapping.  I will probably make the v-neck version, too and plan to attempt the Slapdash Sewist's excellent tutorial for finishing the neckline on that version.

Tripod fixed.  Can finally get my ladypose on.  Note to self:  Watch ANTM for pointers.

About the sleeves, while I love the little flutter sleeves, I think that the instructions could be a little more clear about whether the ends of the sleeve are supposed to meet at the bottom of the armscye or overlap slightly.  If they're just supposed to meet, it takes a bit of maneuvering to get them inserted and sewn correctly.  If you don't get this just right, part of the underarm ends up being left unfinished. 

So, the 10 pounds I put on over the last very bad year apparently went straight to my butt.

Overall, I really liked this pattern.  It's a great little dress, and I've been relying on stretchy clothes over the past couple of months because of the weight gain while my father was undergoing chemotherapy and other treatments that exploded all over the place for most of the fall and part of January (the flyskim Dad remains cancer-free following his most recent pet scan, by the way).  It was nice to be able to put something together and be finished over a weekend as I've also had a lot of problems sustaining productivity with everything that's been going on.  Based on the weekly wear that this dress has been getting, I'd call this a major success. 

I recently also finished McCalls 5974 and will report on that over the weekend. 

However, that is going to be the last stretch fabric for a little while.  I need to work on properly fitting woven fabrics again and get back to several projects that have been allowed to languish since last fall.