I wasn't sufficiently prepared for Frocktober so I'm declaring now, with plenty of warning, that the last month of this year is Dressember. I'm going to wear a frock every day for the whole month. It's partly Melynda's fault with her catchy 'summer of the dress' concept. Mostly it's because I make a bunch of frocks then manage to talk myself out of wearing them... besides, everyone gets a bit casual and silly around Hexmas time so I can get away with it.
So there is Much To Do to ensure I have a sufficient smorgasbord of summer dresses. This one, finished this morning, is now part of the arsenal.
It's made from supremely awesome sateen from the Spotlight sale rack ($5 a metre! I bought it all!) and frankensteined from Simplicity 3774 at top (again, Moggy is my guinea pig and anything she digs, I generally think is worth a bash) and a vague interpretation of the fill skirt from Butterick 6582 below. The back picture I include to show my truly astonishing pattern-matching which is completely out of character with the rest of the frock which is rather shabily constructed because I got cranky and impatient. What, moi?
Anyone else interested in signing up for Dressember (probably more appealing to those of a Southern Hemisphere persuasion, but all are welcome) then come play in the flickr group.
OH! And a follow-up. Remember the multi-stage dress disaster in purple? Well, first I wanted to thank everyone for your comments... I've never had such a response to a posting. But neither have I had such a polarised response. We hate the pockets. We love the pockets! The fabric is great. The fabric is utterly dreadful! The old frock was better. The new frock works! The new frock doesn't fit. Etc, etc. Well, I finished it - and sorry pocket-haters, I put them on. I also put some buttons on the pockets and the bust. It is still a sucky dress but I WON AND IT QUAKES UNDER MY MIGHTY DRESS-FINISHING-AGAINST-ALL-ODDS POWER.
As a punishment for its mediocrity, I have sworn it is a strictly a house-and-gardening dress which is why I put the pockets on (those suckers are handy for seed packets, stake ties, and the like). But lesson learned. If you don't utterly love the fabric, why bother?