Crazy Cat Lady Dress

Anyone who's been clothes shopping with me knows I have the fashion sense of a toddler. One of my college roommates used to joke that I'd only by clothes with animals on them. She wasn't far off the mark. I also have a (massive) fondness for Peter Pan collars. So when I saw Julia's amazingly precious Easter dress at the April HMQG meeting, I started foaming at the mouth. I promise it wasn't creepy.

Not only did I love the cut of the dress, it has pockets(!) and a Peter Pan collar! I knew I had to make one for myself. I purchased the pattern (Simplicity 1419) on Monday, but was still mulling over what fabric to use. For the past year or so, I've been oogling this cat dress on ModCloth, but at $90, I knew it probably was never going to make it into my closet. I figured this dress would be a good alternative if I could find a cute cat print fabric.

Lucky for me, Alyssa Thomas's new collection, Here Kitty Kitty, just dropped. And I mean JUST dropped. I had been checking Hawthorne Threads daily to see if it was available. No luck. On a whim, I checked Etsy and there was a seller with yardage available! By Thursday I had my gorgeous kitty fabric in my hot little hands!

I made a size 12, but now I'm wondering if I should have gone with a 10. Ironically, I planned on making a size 10, but my coworker Patty got bitten by the cuteness of Simplicity 1419 and made one as well. She made a size 12, which she let me try on. It was a near-perfect fit, so I decided to make the 12. I must have screwed up somewhere because my finished product was too big. Even after I disassembled the skirt and bodice, made adjustments, and reassembled it, it was still not an ideal fit. I ended up having to do some janky alterations to take in the side seams a bit. It turned out fine, but I will definitely have to make a muslin next time and work out the kinks.

Julia commented to me that the loop and button closure on the keyhole/collar were a pain to make, so I skipped it all together and just did a few hand stitches instead.

And now I have my crazy cat lady dress for under $50! In true toddler style, I'm wearing this baby to work on Monday. It's my equivalent of wearing something out of the store.