Work In Progress + cat news

 Before I get into talking about my latest sewing project, which may not be of interest to anyone but me, I wanted to make sure those of you who love the BJD cats had heard this bit of news:  They are planning to open a shop with in-stock cats.  That means if you don't want a specific, custom cat, you will be able to order and have it ship out in days, rather than three months!  How awesome is that?  There doesn't seem to be anything about it on their site yet, but it was in their newsletter. :)

On to the project!


So I'm working on creating a pattern for Emily for a yoke dress.  I started with some vintage pattern covers on Pinterest for inspiration, plus an old dress I had when I was very small, and brainstormed:

Once I got the ideas on paper, I started trying out pattern shapes, testing the paper versions against Emily.

The next step after that, of course, is the muslin. This is my first time trying something with a yoke, so  the "armholes mostly in the skirt" thing was hard to wrap my brain around at first.

I tried two different sleeves on the prototype, but neither is quite right yet. I have a third version, which is somewhere in the middle of these two, ready to try out next weekend.

Doing something like this is never a fast process for me, but it is an enjoyable one! :)

Once I have a basic fitting version in muslin, I'll go back and add a seam allowance at the neckline, clean up a few things, and then I get to make Emily a dress using some of the pretty fabric!