redoing the dress

on the way over to a lovely summer evening get together - a bunch of girls, thai food, and crafty things - we were working on the pink dress. fifteen women out to party jump on the tram, and the champagne was talking. sometimes drunk people point out the most obvious things. "isn't that a little big for you?" one asks, after we hold up what we'd been working on.

she was right. after trying it on, measuring the thing (an extra 5 inches in width?) it was one of those forehead slapping what-were-we-thinking moments. we're guessing the mistake could be due to the yarn (it's a substitute) and rechecking our gauge so that a shell equals the single crochets and the double crochets, not just what we thought - the double crochet cluster "shell".
the good news is interweave have kindly made available a free rewritten pattern of the 2004 lily chin crochet dress, which should help.

There's also some online help in the form of
the alteration for women with boobs, plus the finished product, with incentive - she did hers in a month. maybe we should aim to be able to wear by xmas day.