185. Aloha! Simplicity 2927: Aloha Dress

Aloha, my blogging buddies! I'm on my first visit to Hawaii, and it is picture-perfect every single minute of every single day. No exaggeration. Like this random shot from our hotel room balcony:

May I also thank at this time each of you who encouraged me to enjoy the trip and not feel guilt that my family is not with me. It has been a lovely time so far. I'm sure it would have been lovely if my family were here, but in a very different way. For instance, it is about 1:30 p.m. local time and I have not left the hotel today. I haven't even really left the room except to get coffee downstairs, and have spent the day editing photos, uploading them to various places, catching up on your beautiful blogs, and just doing exactly what I want to do when I want to do it. Such a foreign concept with a little one.

Just to re-cap, my BFF Emily and I are here for a week, during which time we are attending a wedding and some related social events for a work friend. One of our first activities was whale-watching with our friend Joe. Grown-ups only, about 16 of us, with a great crew on a decent-size boat. I def. recommend this specific tour if you want to give it a shot! We went swimming with turtles and schools of fish, and got to see a whale family (pod?) doing their thing:

Are you amazed? I was stunned! I'd only seen this kind of thing on TV, never in person. Pretty spectacular! Unfortunately, after the first swim, I let my breakfast go into the big, blue Pacific about 12 times. I really do believe that is an accurate count. You may ask yourself how big my breakfast was that I could afford this. I assure you that my breakfast was meager, and yet there was still more to offer. Despite this, I might be talked into another whale-watching excursion on a future trip!

Although I have taken lots of photos since I've been here to document the trip, I seem to forget to photograph any of the interesting clothes I've shared with you. I wore the low-cut metallic denim dress to the family & friends BBQ on Friday night, and it was perfectly modest with a black tank underneath. I decided not to wear the floral rayon dress to the wedding -- the sandals I brought on this trip were too casual so I decided on a more dressy dress.

I did finish Simplicity 2927, my birthday present for Emily, which she wore to the wedding Sunday night:

I went the entire evening without taking a full-dress photo of Emily, and now I don't have it in me to ask her to put it on again just for a photo, so a hanger shot it is. I will post a review on PR.com sometime, but for now I will say I was super-happy that blending between sizes was pretty simple with this pattern because there are no adjustments to be made along the front princess seams. The neckband is simple denim, the piping is your garden variety Wright's piping, and the bodice is made from some lovely Kokka fabric. I am normally wouldn't consider using Japanese crafty fabric for apparel, but this fabric met all my criteria for color, motif pattern, opacity (no need for lining), weight, and everything else I could think of. It isn't the softest fabric in the world but I hope it will soften with a few more washings.

That's all for now. The beach is calling! If you'd like to see a few more photos, I am uploading the best of the best of Hawaii 2010 over at Flickr. Hope you are having a great week!