Last night I spent three and a half hours sewing a McCalls dress for Clare.  Half way through I discovered that it would need to be lined, as it was so sheer.  Then when I tried it on her the armholes were ridiculously low.  I will need to remove and recut the neckband, take the dress in at the armholes, and lift the entire dress to make the armholes smaller when I reattach the neckband.  If she didn’t like the dress so much I would have tossed it into the bin.  I was really wishing that instead of trying a new pattern, I had just used an Oliver + S pattern or else re-used Simplicity 1625.  Remember the dress I made Clare from Simplicity 1625? Each time it is washed she puts it back on again.  Apparently it is casual, but not too casual.  Somewhere between Christmas and New Year I gave the pattern another go and made a simple top.

Due to fabric restrictions, I made a sleeveless version of view C. It’s a simple top with a flared shape, but a terrific back feature.

Actually, when Clare hasn’t been wearing the 1625 dress, she’s been wearing this top! I used size 8, and cut strips of fabric to use like bias binding to finish the neckline and armholes. They were simply sewn to the right side of the fabric, then turned to the inside and stitched in place. The fabric is a cotton jersey remnant from Darn Cheap Fabrics. It’s rather fun!  There are lots of weird pictures in that print.

I sewed size 8, and it’s a nice fit for her. Clare turns twelve tomorrow, and I can scarcely believe it. What a phenomenal twelve years. I am truly blessed that she is my daughter. We have a lovely mother/daughter day planned that will include buying her high school uniform then going to the Jean Paul Gaultier exhibition and having lunch out in the city. We are both SO looking forward to it! My husband and Stella are going to spend a day together too, but they’ll be going to the local pool. For some reason they declined a day at the gallery!

Looks like I’ll be doing a whole lot of unpicking (actually, I might get the scissors out and just CUT off the neck band) and resewing this evening to fix the other dress. And to add insult to injury, at morning tea today I found myself unpulling my latest crochet project from row 13 back to row 5 because I discovered an earlier error. My crafting doesn’t always run smoothly!