The lounge-dress

Just a little disclaimer: Despite the long wait, the pictures of this dress aren't great. Today was cloudy and actually a bit too dark to take pictures indoors, but indoors is this dress's natural habitat. And the orange fabric proved surprisingly difficult to photograph.

Anyway, this is the dress I decided to make about two weeks ago. Something very comfortable, in jersey. Something to put on after a long day when you don't plan to leave the house anymore but realize you may have to open the door... So, not a robe, not a nightgown but not a proper dress either.
That kind of meant it had to be long. For lounging around, I like warm legs without the need for stockings or pantyhose. And, as I mentioned before, I had some black jersey in my stash which really wasn't good for anything else.

I made the skirt, bodice and sleeves as sketched and decided to decide on a neckline at the last possible moment. I rotated the width for the bust darts to the neckline and ended up just hemming the neckline and making tucks for that shaping. 

Those sleeves are becoming a bit of a feature on my self-drafted home-wear. I made robe two years ago which also had full sleeves with fitted jersey cuffs. The reason, in both cases, is a practical one. Even in my lounge-wear, I want to be able to do things like sewing, eating and even cooking. The wide sleeves of so many robes are really unpractical for that and this type of sleeves is much better. Look-wise it has all the drama of full sleeves but none of the risk of dragging them through the pans...

I am quite pleased with the dress. It is very comfortable (in fact, I have already worn it on two evenings this past week) and although it is a very different look for me, it is actually quite elegant.