A Hoy Hoy! Simplicity 2497 Up Ahead!

Recently I was in Spotlight, buying scrapbooking card stock to make my butterflies. Never able to resist a good pattern sale, I pulled over the Simplicity folder and began to browse. Inside I came across this: Simplicity 2497. I knew I needed it. I love the Cynthia Rowley patterns I have seen,  I think I'm going to have to look into her more! I love the ruffle of the neckline, but as I browsed for fabric to suit, I came across a striped cotton drill. That gave me the inspiration to do view 'B' instead!

I finally finished the dress today, which incidentally happens to be the day before my birthday! Yay me I have a new dress to wear tomorrow now ^__^.

I decided to change the skirt style from being gathered to having pleats instead. I did this by eyeballing and pinning the fabric to my dressmakers dummy. I'm happier with this styling as visually, I prefer pleating. I really like the blousy-ness of the bodice, but the jury is out on the sleeves. I kinda think for this styling sleeveless would have perhaps looked better. I decided to add the shoulder embellishment with the gold buttons also, as I thought the red needed a bit of balancing out.

I really love having the contrast fabric pockets! I have a clipping of Lauren Conrad wearing a playsuit that had a cute fabric contrast pocket as I love that little extra playfulness. 

I have recently fallen in love with wearing brooches. I love that extra bit of zazzle that you can add to your clothing to bring your outfit to the next level. That in mind, I set out to find a brooch in the shape of a ships' wheel. Now, I didn't really see any I fell in love with... until I saw this anchor:

Thank-you, eBay! Hopefully it gets here before I go away on holiday to Supanova as a challenge I set for myself was to wear something I've made each day I'm away.... This will certainly help me to achieve this goal hehe.

Anyway, I recommend this pattern most definitely! Funnily enough, most of the dresses I saw when I googled the pattern were with the ruffled collar. But you can bet I will be one of those people - one day soon!

New: I cut off the sleeves! See how it looks now... (full post here).

And as you can see I got my anchor brooch... Yay me! I prefer the sleeveless look... what do you think?