A FINISHED PROJECT? In a reasonable timeline? (Patreon)

I'm as astonished as you are.

Look at that pattern matching! And it's FOR REAL finished. So what's the story behind the dress?

My dear friend Caly has a December birthday. Not just a December birthday, but a birthday right in the midst of all the holiday bacchanalia. And she's like me, often doesn't know exactly what she'd like to do or when, and I, being a slightly forgetful and terrible friend, have missed several years of her birthday celebrations because I ended up out of town or busy. NOT THIS YEAR.

When we celebrated our other Cali's birthday back in September, I insisted we set a date for Caly's party- we didn't have to know what we were doing, just when. So then when we were about a month out, Caly decided upon a speakeasy birthday. I got us reservations and helped set the night's schedule. AND I had enough time to sew myself a garment for the night, so I did!

I've had this pattern in my stash for a long time- and almost sewed up a version of it in a much larger size some years ago. I actually stole the zipper for this dress from that dress, sitting in my UFO file (Unfinished Fabric Object). I don't remember why exactly I never finished it the first time- maybe I ran out of time, maybe the pattern was out of my skill set, maybe both. But this time around it went pretty well. The pattern has really elegant "finishing", that is the lining sits so nicely inside that it kind of feels like a professional garment or a storebought garment.

I had to sew the smallest size of the pattern included in the packet, and I wonder if I'd used the smaller size packet (which I don't own) if the fit would have been different. I had to do a bunch of work to fit it, taking the zipper out and sewing it back in a few times. Ideally, I would have taken in at the hips to make the fit optimal, but it wasn't really an option because at that point it was already sewn to the bodice, which was fitted pretty well. 

We had a delightful time at the speakeasy, and I'm really happy to have sewed a garment just before the end of the year. Perhaps there's hope for me yet!

(Want the more technical writeup? Here's my review at sewing.patternreview.com! https://sewing.patternreview.com/cgi-bin/readreview.pl?readreview=1&ID=186556)