All becomes clear... well, slightly..

I've been doing some reading up about dressmaking and sewing sizing in general and have discovered that retail garment sizes and sewing pattern sizes bear little relation to each other anymore. And that if your measurements aren't "standard", ie the majority of folks, you pick either the bust measurement (for dresses) or the waist measurement (for skirts and trousers), and grade the other measurements up or down as required. The reason being, the shaping in the bust/waistband area is more complicated (darts, waistband etc) and thus more difficult to resize.

I am making a size 14 sundress (Simplicity 6700) - yup, you read that right. The pattern has a LOT of ease. Alas, when tracing the pattern pieces last night, I realised I had two copies of one sheet and no copies of the other (it's for the sleeve part, which I really wanted!). So I need to go back to the market and hopefully get an exchange - if I wasn't a beginner, I could wing it, but I'm really annoyed. I wouldn't expect to buy a car with only three wheels (unless it was a Robin Reliant!).

If I had made a size 24 (2" more than the biggest pattern on the sheet), the bust would have come to something ridiculous like 56", and my bust is 44", so a whole extra foot of cloth in that area. Tent, anyone?!

I'm still tempted to do a toile, at least of the garment above the waistline, just to check the fit - I'd rather go up a size, than risk reaching for something and splitting a seam. I need to go to the market anyway, to get some bias tape and some ribbon and elastic - I wonder if she'd mind swapping the dress zip I bought and haven't used, for those items?

Relocated my singer sewing shears, AFTER I bought a replacement pair at Hobbycraft. No surprises there. Didn't sleep well last night, so am feeling a bit blue - even Ravelry isn't cheering me up today. Not sure I'm going to club Wed night - perhaps I need a selfish night in, for a change.