"Blue Reflections" dress complete!

Obviously I ran into a couple snags, and didn't finish the dress on Friday like planned. First I managed to get a migraine Friday afternoon. That finally lifted by late evening and I wasn't able to find much time to work on the dress. Saturday morning it only took me the first round around the bottom of the dress to realize I was going to run out of yarn. Sure enough, with half of the last round to make I ran out. Thankfully my husband was going to run some errands and was able to pick up another ball of Patons Grace locally for me. I finished the dress by Saturday afternoon, and I am thankful it is finally done.

I am a bit confused why I ended up running out of yarn. Before starting the project my gauge was exact, and I tend to believe that I keep a pretty consistent tension while working. I must have changed my tension somewhere along the line, because it took me two extra balls (I always get one more than recommended, too bad it wasn't enough in this case). I suppose it isn't so bad though, seeing as how I can actually get into the dress. Saying it "fits" is a bit of a stretch, but I can get it on and it's not uncomfortable.

Blocking really didn't seem necessary with this yarn and the way it was worked, but I did it because the pattern said to. If anything it helped the yarn to lie a bit more flat, but not so much as to really be worth blocking. Anyways, I took a picture of my blocking. I am using the play mats that my Mother-in-law gave to me and the remnants of my previous attempt at a blocking board at the top.

I didn't realize the picture was so blurry...

Here is the completed dress. Looks rather nice really.

Just showing the finishing border of two single crochet rows. It is nice and simple looking.

Here is the scalloped edge at the bottom of the dress. I really thought the book tried to make this section too complicated as it wasn't written the clearest.

I did notice a few mistakes in the pattern. They were small though and easily recognized so didn't pose much of a problem. It wasn't the best written pattern I've used, but it was far from being the worst.

A note about the yarn. I was surprised to find a few problems with the yarn given that I ended up paying about $65 for the yarn (on sale!) for the entire dress. The first ball I used I ran into two ties quite early on into the ball. Thankfully those were the only tied spots I came across, but there were a lot more loose pieces of fuzz in the yarn than I thought acceptable. Maybe my expectations were too high, but all the little fuzzes needed picked off while I was trying to work with it. The hand washing and drying flat doesn't have me too excited, but otherwise the yarn was fine. I don't think I would go out of my way to look for another opportunity to work with it again, but I wouldn't avoid it either. It did create a nice dress, and I expect the cotton to be cool for this summer.

Lastly, I decided to go ahead and model the dress, even though I hate pictures of myself and I am sooo uncomfortable in my skin at this weight. So here I am, being brave, lol

A note about the play mats. Using play mats for blocking works really well. The dress was just a little too big to fully fit, but I can see the mats being perfect for blocking something that is an odd shape or that has arms. Being able to arrange them however needed will come in very handy. They store a heck of a lot easier than the huge chunk of plywood with foam board glued to it, lol I am looking forward to using them with the next project, the crocheted pullover.