Exhibit A - the 50's sleeves

My dad was kind enough to send a picture of my mom in her glorious dress. Doesn't she look beautiful? Please note the sleeves: cute, tasteful, totally appropriate for church and reception.
Also I love the hoop skirt.When I was a child I always wondered how the skirts poofed out like that. "a special petticoat", my mom would say. Oh, how I wanted one! But the dresses of the 70's were pretty much hoop free. Sigh - the 50's gals had all the fun. And no one would ever have suggested that they wear strapless or sleeveless dresses in the fall or winter. There were Rules back then. In some ways I kind of miss them. Without rules, the saying goes, we have chaos.

Much Ado About Sleeves

I read quite a few comments about Mrs. Obama's sleeveless dress. I agree with the Washington Post. If my arms looked like that I'd never wear sleeves again.
Remember what we discussed about Cotillion etiquette? That whatever the First Lady does in matters of fashion is correct? It is now correct to go sleeveless in February.
People who criticize are only revealing their ignorance of etiquette, as my mom used to say.
(Or they are jealous of those arms.)

I've had an epiphany regarding redesigning my top and have now moved to the testing phase. It will either be a huge success or I will be getting good use out of all of my knit scraps in testing. Win-win, right?