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I finished the 1820 doll dress! And it actually turned out better than I expected! It was definitely the most difficult dress I've done so far, even though you wouldn't think so to look at it! (I know, I know, I really am going to have to buy a digital camera sometime this year, I'll post pics of all my doll clothes then so you can judge for yourselves!) I think I was just so frustrated with it's construction that I was finding fault with it everywhere; the stitching on the trim looks fine now that it's all finished, and overall, it actually resembles the sort of dress it's supposed to be! I'll just have to remember next time to make the bodice smaller. Luckily, the disastrous side-back pieces are entirely hidden by the sleeves, so you can't tell how much I fudged it unless you specifically look for it! And even though I ran out of pink thread (OMG!) I just had enough left to finish all the outside stitching and used white for all the inner seams. So on the whole, despite the fact that it nearly killed me, (or at the very least made me want to give up sewing forever!) I actually am quite pleased with how it turned out.

TV-wise, I actually quite like Julia McKenzie as Miss Marple. She's very different from Geraldine McEwan, obviously, but Miss Marple is one of those iconic characters that can have more than one valid interpretation. And the direction and supporting cast and eveything else about the production is still top-notch, so a different lead actress isn't actually as big a change as it could be. (Which is much more than I can say for my late, lamented Bramwell, but I don't have time to go into that now! Some time when I have a few hours I'll probably post a long rant behind a cut expressing my very strong emotions about that show!)

And in other news, I went to the American Girl Charity Benefit sale this year. Long story short: I came to buy ONE doll, I ended up buying TEN dolls. Literally. No joke. But they were $25 each! That's like four for the price of one! (P.S. I'm broke now! I probably won't be able to afford to eat anything but cornflakes for another few months.) And I thought I was finally over American Girl! But when you see them in person they're just SO darn cute! When I got them home I thought I'd have a huge case of buyer's remorse, but in the face of all that darn dolly cuteness, I couldn't even feel bad about it! Like I said, American Girl is drawing me back into it's insidious web. But I'm weak; if it's a choice between dolls and food, the dolls always win. ;-D