Two wonderful friends got married a few weekends ago, and if that's not a reason to make a new dress, then I don't know what is. The wedding was held in a perfectly rustic barn near Albany, so I'm calling this the Albany dress. 

It's the tried-and-true Simplicity 2444, just the basic short-sleeved dress, made up with this awesome cotton wisteria print from Mood. The bodice is underlined with white Bemberg rayon, which feels dreamy and really makes the print pop. Maybe I can dig up a photo from the wedding, but here is Venus for the time being. I wear it with a white slip, too, keeping things extra-modest, because this skirt loves to try to fly up with the tiniest gust of wind. 

I still haven't worked out how much fabric this dress requires, exactly, because Simplicity lists each component's yardage separately. I have no idea why they do that -- if you add up all of the yardages needed for each component, you'll have way, way more than you need for the dress. 

It has pockets (love), serged seams, and, my favorite, lace hem binding. This is the first time I've worked with bemberg lining -- why did it take me so long?! This stuff is amazing. I took my sweet time with it, cut each piece flat, and hand basted everything, and I couldn't be more pleased with how it turned out. Can I just have a bolt in every color? 

I've also worn this out with the skinny black belt, black boots, and black tights, and I felt like a million bucks. One of these days, I'll knit up the chunky-yet-sleek black cardigan that I want to wear with everything that I own, and this would be my uniform.