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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
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Give me courage. I recently found out that not only is Foyle's War ending on Mystery! this season, so is The Inspector Lynley Mysteries. And neither is going to have the usual four episodes, but Foyle will only have three, and Lynley will only have TWO. How they can spring something like this on me I have no idea. What will I watch? I hope they come up with some nice new series soon. Preferably a period one. I was never a Morse fan, and I just can't bring myself to watch Inspector Lewis. At least there's supposed to be more Miss Marple this season. It's what keeps me hanging on to hope. *sniffle*

Still in a musical theater mood, I've been listening to the original cast recording of On a Clear Day You Can See Forever. It's really quite wonderful. Burton Lane is an awesome composer, I wish he'd have done more shows! I'll have to find out why he didn't. But in the meanwhile, I'm falling quite in love with "Melinda", which ought to rank up there with the great romantic Broadway ballads, "Tosy and Cosh" (dig those harpsichords!) and even the title song, which I can finally appreciate properly, instead of having to put the TV on mute when Barbra Streisand sings it. I haven't actually seen the movie in a while, and I'm not quite sure how much they changed, but I know they took out some songs and added new ones, and I have a sneaking feeling the movie would have been a lot better if they'd stuck a little closer to the stage version, and it definitely would have been better if they'd used the original Broadway people, who are all very good.

Started another doll dress with the pink fleur-de-lis fabric. Circa 1815 this time. I decided to use this project to get some practice with the sewing machine, and got the front skirt panel chewed up for my trouble. This is not encouraging! And when I make costumes for myself, rather than tiny dolls, I'll have no choice but to use the machine. (Yet somehow I have a feeling I'll revert to hand-sewing even on people clothes one of these days; it would probably be faster than having to stop and fix that darn machine every five minutes!)

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