Other Sewing . . .

Saturday night is my firm's annual event; this year, although the details are a mystery, we know we're having dinner at a local hotel, and it's a dressy event with men in tuxes and suits and women in evening and cocktail dresses.

As you know, I've been exercising, dieting, and losing weight, and the LAST thing I wanted to do was spend a lot of money on a gown that would--if things go as planned--be too large for me to wear in another couple months.  The other women at the office suggested I look for something at a thrift or consignment shop or one of the many discount department stores, such as Marshall's or Ross's.  So during my lunch hour on Monday, I headed out to search for a suitable dress.

I pulled into the parking lot of a collection of stores, including Ross's and Marshall's.  My first stop was Ross's where they were having their "fall dress event."  And while they had plenty of dresses, none of them seemed suitable.  For one thing, I'm not big busted, and some of the gowns I saw needed a bit more than I have to fill them out.  Many weren't dressy enough.  Some were too fussy.  None were just right.  I checked the blouse rack--if I could find a glitzy top, I was sure I could pair it up with my normal black slacks and fit in well enough at the event, but there were no dressy blouses on the rack.  So I thought I'd check the dress racks one more time on my way out, but this time I'd check a range of sizes "just in case."  So I went through everything once again and again found nothing.  BUT . . . as I went around to the other side of the rack, I came across the clearance section, and there was a dress, in my size, in a simple style.  It had an under dress of a stretchy black fabric and an overdress of black lace.  I tried it on--perfect!

Well, nearly perfect.  I thought, but I wasn't sure, that the hemline of the under dress might be a little longer in spots than the lace overdress, but I knew I could handle a simple hem.  And the price of the dress?  $8.99.  Seriously, $8.99?!  How can I beat that?  And the style is so simple that if it's too large in another month or two, I can belt it and get a little more mileage out of it.  Or take in the side seams.  Or use it to dust my house, because at $8.99, who cares?

So tonight, Friday night, I pinned up the hem and I'm spending the evening with needle and thread.

I expect I'll have a much more active evening on Saturday, and I'll tell you about it later.  In the meantime, are you ready to be creative with your scrappy leftovers?  Post your project and your progress on your blog and link up to Mister Linky below.  And once you do that, if you want to be entered into the next drawing for a box full of my leftover scraps, add a comment telling me you want to be entered.  "See" you on Sunday!