A Home-Day and Corduroy Happiness

We had to cancel some anticipated plans today in order to stay home and get healthy. Nothing too bad, but throaty coughs and persistent sniffles that just need a day at home.

The result of our self-imposed home-day is plenty of time to work on projects. Christmas cookie dough is chilling in the fridge and a viewing of White Christmas is bringing smiles and spontaneous dance sessions.

It has also brought time to work on some sewing projects all in lovely corduroy. Oh, corduroy. I forgot how much I love you! You are sturdy, soft, washable, and so very sweet. Perfect for dresses for both little girls ... and big girls too.

For you see, I stumbled upon a corduroy dress at the magical Anthropologie. Normally, this is a store I view as fantasy-land and explore it much like one would in a dream or a good novel. However. This time there was a massive clearance sale going on (the kind with a "take an additional 25% off the lowest marked price" ...) and a darling little dress that was cheap. I'm talking Target cheap! The only problem? A size too small.

Humpf. What's a girl to do?

 

Corner a sales-girl in the dressing room and demand for utter honesty. "Tell me. Does this look like I squeezed myself into a too-small dress? And don't be nice. I mean it. Don't you be sending me out of here looking like a stuffed sausage."

She said it looked good. And then another lady gave an unsolicited comment of approval. And I decided to believe them. So I bought it. (Insert giddy, maniacal laugh ...)

It actually fit nicely in most areas, just too tight in the arm-holes. Not a surprise since I have man shoulders. (I'm serious. I do. Like a burly dock-worker. I'm sure I could haul up a ship's anchor by hand.) No problems moving, sitting, walking ... but if I had to reach upwards or across my chest, the teensie arm-holes with their vicious cap-sleeves would just about sever my offending limbs.

So today I spent a little time deconstructing and widening arm-holes to accommodate my upper-torso beefiness. Ahhh...much better.

Now it's time to get back to work on some sweet corduroy dresses for two little girls who still have very lovely and proportional arms. Here's to hoping that the man-arm genes don't reveal themselves in my innocent progeny. It's a good thing they are learning to sew ...