a stripey dress for the 1st day back to school

remember that stripey dress i started when shirley visited back in october?  well, with 2 weeks off for winter break, i had all the time in the world to finish it!  (it was sad just how quickly i was able to finish it... i was just that close!)  one big question i had to tackle was the type of sleeve to attach:  short, half length, or full length?  this next picture quickly ruled out the last 2 options... i'm swimming in stripes!

short sleeves won the vote, unanimously.  whew.

with the leftover fabric, i made my coworker's daughter a little skirt.  apparently the kid commented on how broke mommy and daddy were, which broke my heart, so i've vowed to turn all my extra fabric into little garments for her.  here's the front:

funny story: i ended up only making 1 side pocket for the skirt because to make another one, i would have had to cut up the other side of the skirt, thus wasting an inch in seam allowance.  because the skirt was already pretty narrow for a twirly skirt, i didn't want to shrink the circumference.  so, i emailed my coworker, told her to do me a solid and convince her daughter that 1-pocket skirts are all the rage in 2016.  since she would always need to center her skirt so that the pocket was always on the right (based on how i understitched and ironed the pocket), i embroidered her name on the inside of the center back of the waistband so she could always figure out how to put the skirt on.  =)

for new years, eric and i camped in front of the fireplace, literally.  we kept a fire going for a couple days straight, and i made apple turnovers with these mini apples that we got at the chinese grocery store.  worst idea ever!  mini apples meant that i had to core 9 mini things versus coring just 2 big ones for the same quantity of apple.  sigh.  lesson learned: not all small things are cute and worthwhile!  i used some phyllo dough that eric had in the freezer.  phyllo dough is not my cup of tea.  the tedium of separating each layer and buttering them individually was only fun for 3 turnovers. i ended up stuffing the rest of the layers on top of little ramikins filled with mini apple chunks and just buttering the tops.  hahahha, such. a. slacker!

squeeks rang in the new year too.  he was less enthusiastic than i was.

and today was the 1st day back to school, a new semester.  i wore my new stripey dress!  a big box pleat in the front!

the pattern was huge.  HUGE.  i took 4 inches off the circumference of the dress.  2 inches per side.  it's so comfy though.  i got a ton of compliments on it today too.  one would think i'm a compliment-monger.  i probs am, hehehehhehe.  happy new year!