I really like the Boden catalog, despite not ever really wearing anything from it (except for one floral coat that has got to be my favorite jacket ever and which goes with everything).

This dress looks so comfy that I almost forgive it for not having any pockets. And for having angora in it, which always makes me itch. And for being $118, because I know the blue and browny.jpgnk versions (click on the image to visit the catalog page and see them) will probably go for less in the sale.

I can't remember the last knit dress I had and wore — I think I had a very severe early-90s JCrew black knit wedge dress that made me look like as if I were the head girl in a Dickensian boarding school dressing up as the headmistress. (What can I say? It was a favorite look at the time.) All I needed was a lorgnette and a set of chatelaine-type keys (and a fondness for gin) and it would have been perfect. I think I even wore it with a wonderful pair of kiltie brogues that I wish I still owned. I wore them into slivers of leather, I did.

I'm not sure what I did with that dress — it might have been sent away in the great postnatal clothes purge (otherwise known as "If I Can't Breastfeed In It, It Is Dead To Me" diaspora) of the year 2000; then again, it might be in a plastic storage tub in the attic. You never know.

I think if I had this dress I would want to wear it with bright tights (yellow? pink? red?) but that I would always end up taking one last look at myself in the mirror and going back upstairs to change into black ones. I'm also not sure what coat I'd wear with it — knit dresses tend to get so bunchy under coats, and you never can be absolutely sure, even with a good slip, that static cling hasn't decided to start wrapping the dress higher and higher up your legs.

I also like the Colourblock Wool Dress, although it doesn't have any pockets, either. (It's a conspiracy to make us buy more handbags, I tell you.)

Now I have a yen to hear all sorts of knit dress stories. Leave 'em in the comments?

Julie at Damn Good Vintage sent me this dress that's up for sale in her shop right now. And all I can say is I wish I knew the woman who put this together. I mean, sure, there's an even chance she was a raving loon (okay, better than an even chance) but I bet she was FUN. I bet she ate ice cream without moaning about how fat she was, and I bet she didn't mind running so as not to be late for the movie previews (the best part) and I bet she could imitate the mannerisms of your worst ex-boyfriend in such a way that you howled with laughter and forgot all about how badly he broke your heart. You know, the female equivalent of a mensch. And I bet, if you asked her, she would have let you borrow this dress, even though it was her favorite and even though she knows you tend to gesture with your french fries and spill ketchup everywhere.

It's B38, W30, $110 and completely inexplicable. There's a supernumerary bow on the shoulder. The sleeves have ties. Those buttons — they HOLD THE SKIRT ON. I don't understand, but then, do I really need to?

If you buy this and actually wear it, drop me an email. We can go to the movies. I'll wear my crazy skirt, and bring the Raisinets.

So I ran into the amazing India last week (actually, she was nice enough to come out to an event at the NYPL to see me!) and she was carrying The Perfect Bag. We were chatting away and then BOOM! There was the bag. Seriously, I think I interrupted her mid-thought to ask her where she got her bag.

"It was from Daffy's," said India, and instantly my heart beat faster — a gorgeous bag, and one that was guaranteed not to cost $350! India quickly showed me all the pockets — so many lovely pockets — and the pink lining, and let me fondle the leather. I had to have one.

But, sadly, I didn't have much more time in the city! Certainly not enough time to go to every Daffy's … What to do? What we always, do (Pinky …) go to the Internet! In this case, the Sierra Trading Company, who had it in stock (Sierra is slightly more pricey than Daffy's, but it was still, barely, <$100, which is my LIMIT for handbags, even perfect ones).

Why is this bag perfect, you might ask? Well: it's green, which goes with green (duh), brown, black, orange, and gray, which are the colors of all my fall & winter coats. It has a cross-body strap. It is big enough (11-x16-x4-”) to hold my MacBook in its neoprene sleeve, without being so big that the laptop wobbles around. And did I mention the pockets? Four on the front (two zip, two open), one inside, and one zippered long pocket on the back. Plus pen loops! It is not dripping with fobs or other dangly useless metallic bits. It is completely free of giant logos. In short: genius.

Why it's showing up in the clearance racks of the world is a puzzle — who *wouldn't* want this bag, even at its original (gulp) price of $186?

Anyway, if you want one, click on the image to visit Sierra Trading. It also comes in black, wine, and brown. (But green is the best color for handbags.)

I know, I know, it's early for prom, but a lot of kids have winter formals and suchlike, yes? This is just such a great dress for a formal dance, especially for younger women who crave sophistication (c'mon, we were all there once). This is an easy way to get it without being kitten dressed as cougar, if you know what I mean. The sweetheart neckline and sweet full skirt can be dressed up or down pretty easily. Add a fakey tiara and long gloves to the narrow-skirted version and you are Holly Golightly; make the full-skirted one in pink and you are Sandra Dee. (I personally would avoid the brocade version for the under-30 set, but hey, if brocade makes you happy, go for it.)

The full-skirted version would be just lovely in a pale yellow organza. Go nuts and sprinkle the bottom third of the skirt with heat-set rhinestones. You only live once …

This listing ends today, I think, so jump if you want it. Click on the image to visit the eBay auction.

This is such a great dress (from Out of the Ashes). I don't know what it is about two-tone patterns, but I love them. Maybe it's the buy one, get one free fabric mentality, or maybe I am not-so-subconsciously looking for an excuse to buy one yard cuts of fancy fabrics, but put a border or a shoulder piece or a whatever on a dress that justifies hours of agonizing fabric matching, and you can be sure it'll get my seal of approval (should I work one of those up, by the way?).

I love the slim sheath on the right — not that the border print with the happy hat is not lovely, but the sheath seems more season-appropriate to me right now. I'd love to make it in brown with a deep pumpkin orange for the top contrast, or even brown and cream.

Of course the problem with my new fixation on brown is that I'm having the crankiest time trying to find the right shoes-that-go-with-brown. Why is it so hard to find brown shoes that don't have stupid metal details, horrible rubber bike-tire soles, or are pinchy? Anything that's even passable has three-and-a-half-inch heels, which, sorry, can't do (well, can't do for more than an hour). Why doesn't someone hire me to design shoes, I ask? (The fact that I cannot draw anything but amoebas shouldn't factor into it — I'm sure I could have one of those Identikit artists help me out.) These are the closest I've found to the "right shoe" so far …

Whoa! Sorry, can't remember the last time I missed a couple days in a row (at least, not without advance notice) but I was traveling a bit and had spotty internet access — those EVDO cards are looking better and better, I tell you — but, now we're back, and with this:

This pattern is up on eBay from UK seller lookingforabargains (from whom I recently purchased this).

I really thought I'd written about this one before, but a little googling didn't turn it up. If I haven't, I should have, because, well, look at it! I would love to make this almost exactly as shown, in those gray and white stripes, although I'd probably make the button and belt red. And I'm sure I'd futz around with trying red piping along those bodice seams, before giving up in frustration and re-cutting the mangled bit I'd experimented on …

Of course, the downside of ordering from UK sellers at the moment is that it seems they're having a postal strike! I also ordered a bunch of Liberty babycord from eBay right before they walked out, so I have that feeling you get when you believe, superstitiously, that the universe has overreacted to your behavior. I mean, I *knew* I didn't need any more Liberty babycord, but it was so beautiful … but jeez, wouldn't it have been easier for the universe just to cause a minor eBay error? A postal strike seems a bit excessive, frankly. So I'd like to apologize to anyone else who may have been caught up in the chastisement the universe prepared for me.

I got home from this lovely event yesterday to find the above pattern waiting for me (I'd be posting a picture of the dress I made for said event if UNITED HADN'T LOST MY LUGGAGE, grrr*).

With any luck I can make this one up quickly, not just to replace the dress that may or may not be lost in the murky recesses of the Denver airport, but also to start laying in a store of warm dresses for winter. Even though I read in the news today that they're predicting a warmer-than-usual winter, and even though I'm sitting here in Chicago with the air-conditioning running in October (!), I still feel that one or two nice warm wool dresses might be handy to have around. January comes every year, y'know, and in Chicago, weird weather patterns aside, it's good to be prepared.

It need hardly be said that I am toying with the idea of running piping along that overbust seam, does it? I want a soft wool crepe in deep teal with cranberry piping, or vice-versa. (What I *really* want is a wool-cotton blend, Jubilee, but good luck finding that anywhere, anymore!)

And, just because, here's the description on the back of the pattern:

"It's a new you — looking delightful in the full-skirted casual. Cut-out neckline has soft gathers beneath the band. Below-elbow sleeves are cut-in-one with back bodice and band. Four-gore skirt has unpressed pleats."

How could you resist the promise of "looking delightful"? That's something that's just not on offer enough these days.

*Update: Luggage found! Or so they say.

Although her dress, her coiffure, and all the preparations for the ball had cost Kitty great trouble and consideration, at this moment she walked into the ballroom in her elaborate tulle dress over a pink slip as easily and simply as though all the rosettes and lace, all the minute details of her attire, had not cost her or her family a moment's attention, as though she had been born in that tulle and lace, with her hair done up high on her head, and a rose and two leaves on the top of it.

(from Anna Karenina)

This is one of my favorite passages in the book so far. (I'm not reading the Oprah edition; I'm reading it in discrete chunks from Daily Lit, which is a tremendous boon to mankind: get books through your email and look like you're working!)

… as though she had been born in that tulle and lace: this, to me, is the ideal of clothes. Your clothes, no matter what trouble you took with them beforehand, should in the moment of wearing appear as natural to you as your birthday suit. They should be part of you, not something slapped on as an afterthought. In fact, what you wear should look so much like YOU that if someone else put it on, it would look like a YOU costume.

Of course, I'm a little farther ahead in the book at this point and I realize that being perfectly dressed didn't really help Kitty at that ball. So I'm not saying that if you manage to perfectly integrate your inside and your outside that you will lead a charmed life; I'm just saying you won't be tugging at and uncomfortable in and much too conscious of your clothes. And every little bit helps.

Michelle over at OldPatterns.com has this listed for sale — click on the image to visit the page — and I really, really, really wish I had an excuse to buy and make this dress. I'd need a great excuse, as it's B30 and $75, but I'm looking … anyone want to invite me to a White House dinner? (Okay, maybe I'd like to wait until January '09 for that one, but I'd be up for some embassy shindig.)

I love that this pattern is described as an "informal dinner dress". Obviously, this dates before the rise of the drive-in, never mind the drive-through!

This dress makes me long for the days when people took dresses seriously. This is a life-and-death dress, a dress of consequence. This dress stands for something, and takes no guff. Can your poly-cotton jersey number from Forever21 say the same?

Friend-of-the-blog Nora is doing a little pattern divestiture on eBay — you can check out her listings here.

Now you all know I have nothing but love for the professional pattern-sellers, but I have to admit that my heart quickens when someone tells me that they're selling off some of their "collection". I think it's because, rightly or wrongly, I figure that they are selling off things regretfully, only because they need some space, and that regret is because what they're selling is freakin' awesome. (Which seems to be true in Nora's case — nice pattern up above, what?)

This belief of mine is carried to a ridiculous extreme when I think about estate sales — I mean, c'mon, this is stuff people DIED holding on to! It must be incredibly great! And no matter how many times I go to a sale that consists only of wash-and-wear polyester 1970s housedresses, archival issues of TV Guide ("Who's the Boss?" always seems to feature prominently), and ABSOLUTELY NO FABRIC OR PATTERNS even though "sewing machine" is listed in the ad, I keep believing.

[Of course, I am SO EVIL — so evil, that if I ask about patterns and the estate sale runner is dumb enough to tell me that they threw them out, so sorry, I always say "Oh, that's too bad — you know, some of those patterns go for $30 each, or more!" Even if I *know* they probably tossed a box of 80s-puff sleeved monstrosities. Such cavalier behavior on their part must be *punished*.)

But back to this pattern. Boy, I love that yoke! I'd make this in a charcoal gray with red buttons and wear it with a red belt (but not red shoes). So cute!