my next project

So, I finally took apart my much-loved-but-shredded Deva Lifewear dress (they have gone out of business, so ordering a replacement is not possible). It was an effort and I wound up having to just cut along the seams (to finish the seams, they were serged, and not only am I not cutting out seemingly-miles of serging, it also led to the seam allowances being trimmed to less than the standard 5/8", so I'd have to add seam allowances ANYWAY).

I learned a couple of things:

1. The sleeves are not set-in; they were put in before the side seams. An interesting construction tip for my reverse-engineered version. (Most dresses, you sew them all up, and then put the sleeves in last.)

2. It has eight skirt gores. ("Eight! Eight gores! AH HA HA HA AH! *thunderclap*). And they're not set in symmetrically: every body piece has a gore on its right-hand side, so it's something like gore-right side front-gore-right center-gore-left center-gore-left side front-gore-left side back-gore-left center back-gore-right center back-gore-right side back. Lots of sewing but I suspect the 5 1/2 yards of fabric I bought will be more than I need (That's okay because I wound up going with a quilting-weight batik print in a medium blue. The original dress was of "breezecloth," a thicker but gauzier cotton, but I couldn't find a comparable fabric I liked. I think the batik will be fine; the drape is a little different (it's crisper) but I think it should still work).

There's no zipper - this is a pop-over-the-head dress (There are ties on the back - well, those were an add-on made from the trimmed hem when I bought the dress and found that the size that fit my bust was too big in the waist). So once I get going on putting it together, it should be fast. I may try getting some pattern paper and tracing the old fabric pieces of the old dress to make a more-permanent pattern if this one turns out well.

Other than that, I've mostly made critters (two free unicorn kits from the Brit-knit magazines I like, and Kero-chan, and I pretty much screwed up my wrists sawing down all the dumb little trees that invaded my parents' alleyway and then crocheting Kero-chan....). I did finish some socks....