La robe Lucie jumps the queue

I've always liked my collar bones as an anatomical feature.  Add piping and an interesting shoulder detail, and I'm sold.

This pattern was not part of the sewing plan (like there's a plan. Ha!)  It's also not what I intended for this rather gorgeous lightweight denim interwoven with yellow.

But when I saw the robe Lucie on - who else? - Jolies Bobines, I had to do it. Immediately!  I have been lusting over this shape of oversized, gathered-skirt dress on Pinterest for at least a year, all along wondering if I could be bothered to hack it myself.  Well, I guess good things come to those who procrastinate - now Republique du Chiffon has drafted it for me, and impeccably so.

Now, it's immediately obvious that I added some length to the short skirt: 12cm, to be precise.  (Also obvious: my face was not really up for photos yesterday morning. Apologies.)  Looking at these pictures, it definitely could stand to be shorter, even with my slightly chubby upper legs.

However, as it is, just above knee-length, this dress is absolutely perfect summer daywear.  What I couldn't get the camera to grasp, struggling as I do with the tripod and self-timer, is how flattering this dress actually is in person. It hangs wide - the light denim fabric, while recommended for the pattern, is stiffer than all the samples I've seen so far - but the oversized shape both looks and indeed IS breezily, casually stylish.

And I LOVE the low back.  It does gape ever so slightly, and I think for my next version I'll size down in the bodice and do an FBA (no-dart version, natch) which'll probably deal with that. But straight off the printer, the fit is nigh on perfect, which left me to happily concentrate on the pattern's lovely little details.  The piping at the shoulders is self-made from some scraps of grey linen, and I also made the bias from self-fabric to bind the neckline & armholes. The label is a scrap of coarse ribbon and I really like the textural elements these all give. No-one else will notice, but I'll know :-)  And then I edge-stitched and top-stitched the bindings and waist seam to give it a kind of jeans-light look, stopping and starting before and after the piping - it was all pretty bulky, and the contrast thread would have looked awful anyway.

And there you have it - a quickly, happily made and entirely unplanned dress that came from nowhere and swept to the front of the queue, on to the blog, and all without so much as a do-you-please to either my finished, unblogged makes or the many ideas-in-waiting.  La robe Lucie is, in fact, just like the best and most imperious of French ladies.

(If you've ever been in a queuing showdown with one, I suspect you'll know what I mean).