You know how it was when I found my skinny jeans...

well, IT'S HAPPENED AGAIN! So there we were having our sale (yes, get prepared, this will be a long post) and we had a ten dollar bin of absolute grotesqueries.

Only there were a couple of gorgeous expensive items in there that had been damaged beyond repair. A huge tear, some snapped elastic...or so we thought.

A long grey jersey shapeless thing found its way in there and time and time again would get rejected after fitting room sessions. I touched it. It was nice fabric - that soft as butter micro-modal stuff. But it looked like it had been torn, and then there was the snapped elastic.

The sale was extended and the madness continued. Make-up smeared on white blouses. Zippers ripped out of their very existance, prices crossed out, items hidden, stolen, etc. Clothes began to take on the appearance of thrift store wares as crazed women violated them time and time again.

And still the grey blob persevered and was not taken - legally or illegally. Nor was it damaged beyond its original status. This, ladies and gentlemen, was a sign, but I was too blind to see it.

After a month of sale, we determined we were going to give all the real crap to charity. Grey blob got packed in with the rest. One day both my coworkers came in wearing maxi dresses and they looked so cute and I wished I had a maxi dress too. Meanwhile, the grey blob wallowed in darkness and impending donation.

I began to look online for maxi dresses. I decided I needed more jersey tops. I had some time off of work. And suddenly it hit me like a red herring: I could hack up the grey blob and make a fabulous top out of it! All week I prayed we hadn't suddenly gotten our s*** together and donated everything already.

But that was the second sign and we hadn't and I purchased grey blob for $10.

And took grey blob home where I promptly got distracted by a million other projects. Grey blob was left to ponder the great mysteries of life tied around our clothes rack like a soft and cuddly boa constrictor.

Yesterday a girl came in asking if we carried Rachel Pally. Do we know who Rachel Pally is? Well, I will tell you. Fashion interlude:




Rachel Pally used to be a dancer and now makes gorgeous micro-modal dresses that are insanely comfy and flattering. Sure, they all look more or less the same. But my friends, to make a long story even longer, watching Proj RW season 3, I was a little miffed at how these awesome designers were unable (for the most part) to design for plus sized women:



Rachel Pally, on the other hand, has it in the bag:



When I first saw jersey dresses, I was all: ugh, blah and boring. But try one of these babies on, and try to hate it. Just try. You can't. Why? Because it's like looking like you're in an evening gown while feeling like you're in pjs.

If you're still there, we're now going back to my grey blob, which, if you have a drop of in you, you will already have deduced, is in fact a Rachel Pally dress.

Today I decided I was going to make my top. (You are shreiking, no! NO! Don't cut it!) BUT I decided to what the heck, try it on first.

And it looked like a shapeless mu-mu.

But I had my second and final revelation (THIS is my maxi dress!!!) and I persevered and discovered the "tears" were really just raw edges, the "snapped elastic" was a drawstring that had got sucked inside the casing, and when the dress is put on right and the drawstring is tightened, the ugly duckling becomes a SMASHORGIFULABULOUS dress!!!


I have my maxi dress, and you, my friends, have wasted the better part of your day in sharing this glorious moment.

Group hug. :)