This project almost ended up in a very dark and hidden drawer a dozen times, but finally the fruits of my laborious labor have come to light. What was originally supposed to be a very cute baby-doll dress has mysteriously morphed into a lovely little top.
It all began with a darling pattern from the Crochet Me book. This pattern was the sum and total reason for me purchasing this book in the first place and I immediately went out and bought some yarn to create it. Unfortunately the yarn store didn’t have enough of one color to complete the pattern so I settled for three coordinated colors instead. This was MONTHS ago… After starting and stopping and frogging and crocheting and finally cursing a blue streak I realized my purple, violet and black color scheme was NOT working.
*Note to self and others: The lightest colors should be highlighting the nice spots (i.e. the bust!) and the darker colors should be used for the parts that need diminishing (i.e. the waist!) The other way around isn’t quite so flattering!!*
Despondent over my failure I frogged the entire piece and put everything away. The purple, black and violet yarn did return later to become my Heidi-esque top (see my previous post) but the pattern languished in my pile of crochet books and other collected patterns.
Finally, I came to a point where I had finished all my works-in-progress and my fingers were itching to hold that hook again. Digging through my dwindling stash I came up with five skeins of yarn that were of the same weight and fiber- a lovely dark green I had used to make the “Unseemly Sweater” from Stitch and Bitch: The Happy Hooker, and some black I had used to make a beautiful cowl-neck top (see my last post for details.) Both were DK weight and mostly alpaca fiber and I figured this was a sign to get out that baby-doll pattern again.
I knew I didn’t have enough to make the pattern, but I figured I would just end up with a baby-doll tunic instead of a dress. It would still be fun and hopefully very flattering, so I dove in with the green yarn- fashioning the bodice as instructed. Maybe halfway through the bodice I realized I was going to be a bit short on green yarn, but the stitch pattern was amazingly stretchy so I made it a size smaller knowing the stretch would guarantee that it still fit. I still came up short. The “straps” that were the base for the puffed sleeves were WAY too thin and to get an appropriately sized sleeve I would have to make the sleeves twice the size.
I had horrible images of monster sleeves like something straight out of the 80s- or maybe the 1880s- starting somewhere in the middle of my shoulder and puffing out enough to make me look like a linebacker.
So I nixed the sleeves. Even the pattern says that without sleeves it would make a cute jumper, so I continued on my merry way.
I continued on… that is until I got panicky about the green and black together. Would I end up creating another debacle like the purple, violet and black attempt at this pattern? I had to integrate the colors better before I started the skirt portion!
Knowing that I had a VERY limited amount of the black yarn to make the skirt portion I rummaged round in my stash again to find another black yarn in DK weight. Of course I had black yarn in DK weight, but it was acrylic! Oh well… Tally ho- I went ahead and used it to outline the neckline and armholes to integrate the colors which had the added bonus of expanding the straps into something a little more manageable. A little picot edging helped make the very plain bodice mesh better with the ribbon tie and the shell stitch that would make up the skirt portion.
Okay- back on track… With much enthusiasm I began the skirt portion- back to following the pattern in the book- and feeling really good about it. I had forgotten just one tiny detail… I had used the smaller size for the bodice which made the skirt portion much smaller- in fact almost TOO small! Plus I had again underestimated the amount of yarn it would take to make the skirt.
After I had depleted the first skein of black alpaca I realized that it was going to be a very form-fitting skirt. Almost too form-fitting. If I continued on at this rate I was going to have it bunch up around my waist because it was not going to go over my high-hip area! So I upped my hook size for a few rows… and then I upped it again… and again. By the time I had run out of yarn it was nowhere near a dress. It wasn’t even a tunic! But thank goodness it at least covered my stomach!
A ribbon tie finished it off nicely and although it barely resembles the pattern from the book I am most pleasantly surprised by the outcome! I guess that just goes to show that perseverance pays off… or something like that…
-Lyzard
