Visitors, 2Day Dress, and TJ's Hat

We are still keeping busy. After all of our Christmas company left, my brothers, Matt and Nathan, came for a visit. One of these days, I'm going to need to do some catch-up of all this. I read so many good year-end or year-beginning summaries/goal lists, and really did mean to do my own. Hmmm.
But to assuage any guilt I may feel, here's a cute picture of my little boy:
I am a dork, and did not get a picture of Nathan and TJ, but here is one of Matt and TJ:
I've been wanting a knit dress that I can throw on in a hurry; with the turning of the year, we now have the 8:30AM church block (this is mostly an awesome good thing, as we are home in time for TJ's nap). So here is Butterick 4914:

I loved how easy this dress was to make. The original pattern has a really low neckline, but it was easy to make it about 2inches higher by cutting the surplice panels higher on the inner edge, and then shirring the shoulder seam to hide the excess fabric. I hate having to wear camis underneath things (really, ANOTHER layer?!), so the decision to raise the neckline was a no-brainer. But that's the only alteration I needed. The fabric is from Hancock's clearance table at 2.99/yd, and I don't love the print, but since it was my first time sewing with a matte jersey, I didn't want to commit much $$. I also loved how FAST this dress was. During one of TJ's naps, I got everything done except hemming the skirt and setting in the sleeves. So really, it's almost a one-day-dress (and if your kid naps longer than mine, it for sure is). Added bonus: it's machine washable, so TJ can smear cheese all over me to his hearts content.

TJ's hat, off the needles and blocked:

I'm really happy with how this hat turned out. I learned a ton (2 different cabling styles, a bunch of new decreases, Russian joins, etc), and am pleased as punch that I was able to figure it all out. It's definitely the most complex piece I've made yet.