Well, most knitted things stretch over time... it's a characteristic of knit fabric and well, fibres generally.

I've never heard before that superwash is particularly prone to stretching.

I'm really sensitive to itchies and I wear my silk garden scarf against my bare neck. It's not so much itchy and scratchy, if you can manage the subtle difference? It isn't soft/ sleek like silk or merino, but it doesn't give me the heebie-jeebies like Kureyon does.

So I thought I wasn't going to my uni faculty ball this year due to a, uh... shortage of funds; but my dad out of the blue offered to buy my ticket!
So now I have a ball in ten days, and absolutely no dress to wear.
Given that I couldn't afford the ticket, you can imagine what my dress budget is looking like... maybe $40?
I also have pretty much one day to sew something if that's the route I go.
While I want to look nice, fancy finishings and whatnot aren't really necessary. I can cut corners As long as it lasts till midnight...

So - suggestions! What can I whip up in a day that will make me the belle of the ball? Is there a tute here you can suggest? Is there a really nice, very easy pattern you've used to make a formal gown? Any 'cheat' ideas (like, uh... I don't know - dye and embroider a full-length satin slip...)?
I'm going to check out the local vintage clothes store tomorrow (in the hope of just finding some hilarious 70s lurex number that I can just wear outright, but I think everything may be beyond budget).

My only requirement is that it be tea-length or floor-length.

ughhh! i love it
i was looking at that exact one last week.
it looks great!
any cchance you remember how many pages were printed out?

9, I think. 8 for the actual pattern and one to tell you how to put it all together. Oh, and the instructions were an extra, separate three (but you wouldn't have to print them if you could read 'em off the screen).

Green are my tear$: That's a pity. Luckily my pancake butt (wide but depressingly flat) fits in just fine. On the upside, remember you will always look better in jeans than me.

Yeah, a slit could be added but it'd wreck the line a little.

Also there's no seam down the back, so you'd have to draft the back as two pieces so as to have the seam allowance to be able to not have raw edges on the slit, but still have each side of the slit sit flush against each other. Does that make sense? That or have slits at the side. Which is kind of... weird.

Doomveggie: Thanks! I made the bolero too - first thing I knit after about a decade-long hiatus between blanket squares in Brownie Guides and 'Mum! Mum! Look at this wicked vintage knitting pattern I found! Help me make it!'
The bunny I didn't make - he was an impulse buy the other week, because he was a mere $16! From Elk Accessories, who have a rather thorough website if you google (though I don't know if they sell outside Australia)

mmm.. I like the single ply. *sigh*
going to chain stores for yarn is actually kind of a hassle for me. I hate shopping centres with a passion, and avoid them as far as possible, yet kmart and big w are all inside those Glass and Concrete Hells.

As part of my week-long Sophia Coppola themed sewing binge I printed out and stuck together and cut out the Marie skirt pattern from www.burdastyle.com, and it is much love.
The skirt is sooooo easy. The 4 hour time estimation is genuinely how long it took me (which never happens with me and patterns). Actually, it did take a day, because I made my size according to the measurements first, and that was too big, so I decided to start again and make my proper size (my ready to wear number - one size smaller than what the measurements indicated) and it looks muuuuuch better.

I'd recommend against using interfacing on the waistband like the direction say. I used quite a heavy fabric (upholstery fabric...) and the band was narrow that with the interfacing as well I had trouble folding/ ironing it down.

Also just be aware that the space for your legs to come out is not very big. It's like a hobble skirt. Wearing it out last night I was taking two little steps for everyone else's one. I can't pull the skirt up past about my mid-thighs. Any super-curvy gals thinking of making it, I'd recommend a little re-draft of the pattern to make the lower circumference bigger.

But I do really, really like it. Cost $15 all up (fabric was remnanted).

I am so bloody good! I never go to kmart. My significant other insisted on going there on thursday to buy a cheapy backpack, and I did not even *look* at the yarn section! (I may have purchased and consumed an entire 100g block of chocolate instead, mooching about outside the petshop, but that is so not the point).
I'm holding off for a bendigo order, once I have the crochet skillz to convince myself that I will actually make a whole blanket.

What was the negative about?
Look, the stuff is no merino (l'il itchy) but it's a good solid quality wool, in my opinion.

My LYS has plenty of 4ply merino for baby garments... and laceweight too...

I just finished the Marie skirt. The instructions were nice and clear in places, totally whack in others (luckily in the bits I could work out for myself). But the finished skirt looks very cool.