… my dress sewing has stopped tonight. I can’t find my camera (hopefully when the TeaBot 5000 reads this post he’ll remember where I put it, LOL!) to show you progress, but apart from the zipper and binding the neck and armholes and doing the hem, it’s done.
Simplicity 4505 is long out of print, which is a shame, since it’s a useful pattern, with a jacket, dress, skirt, and pants all in the one envelope. No linings though, and I couldn’t be bothered THINKING about linings, so the dress is unlined.
(photo will go here when the camera is found!)
I perhaps should have made a full pattern and tried to match the pattern in the fabric a little (naaah, this ain’t couture!) and I think if I bother to do this one again, a slightly heavier fabric would be better than the 100% cotton I used in this version.
I cut out a 22… but cheated on the seams at the waist and managed to squeeeeeeeeeze enough out to fit in my waist (groan mutter curse curse) It’s okay… not as good a fit as I’d perhaps like, but hey, it’s fabric that was $5 per metre from Spodshite, it’ll do.
In other news….
I got to gym last night for cardio + Pilates, then again this morning for BodyStep. Managed to do more of the class actually using the step today. Yay me, huh?! Tomorrow: cardio + Oxigeno (love those functional movement and stretching classes!). That’s provided the neighbours let me sleep…
You see, we live in a worker’s cottage. And very close next door is what started out as an identical worker’s cottage. So the floor plans are exactly the same in both wee houses. Which means that THEIR loungeroom? Is about 5 feet from our bedroom. (Don’t even get me started on uncorrected property boundaries, grrr!)
Not soooo bad when all they’re doing is watching (violent, noisy) movies late into the night. Up until about, say , midnight, I don’t care, I’m usually awake anyway. But combine the loud action flick with even louder sex? That becomes less tolerable.
The straw that broke this poor old camel’s back, though, was that that decided to DO IT with the lounge (sofa) jammed up against the outside wall of their house. 5 feet from our bedroom and RESONANT. And they’re young, so they go at it like rabbits. HYPERACTIVE RABBITS.

"Wait wait! I think I've got a hare in my throat!"
Bang a bang a banga banga bangabangabangabanga ooooooooohhhhhh bangabangabanga banga YES! OH YES! bangabangabanga….
This went on until 4 am.
When I overslept the alarm this morning and had to rush to get to the gym, I mentioned that the neighbour’s shagging had kept me awake. Various suggestions on how to deal with the problem were made:
- Ask loudly “Is that IT?”
- Join in the over-the-top moaning
- Play baaaaaaaaaad 1970s European (*wink wink*) film soundtracks: Chicka booowwwww!
All good – but not as funny as the song that appeared as track 5 or so in the BodyStep Workout: Yep, Acka Dacka’s “YOU SHOOK ME ALL NIGHT LONG”

sing along, everyone!
I was laughing so hard I was nearly crying, and still trying to do the step class!
Ahhh, ya gotta laugh, eh?!
Anyone got any further suggestions? Would a note saying “HI! We’re your neighbours! Would you mind moving the couch out from the wall when you have noisy fun?” be too much, do you think?