Turn me into a dress!!!

It's been bitter cold outside so it's understandable that the beautiful cabled sweater knit I bought a little while ago at Metro Textiles has been calling to me. What's a complete surprise is that it's been begging to be made into a nice cozy.... DRESS?! What? Huh?

For some background, I'm not a huge dress wearer. I wear skirts every day,  but dresses..  not so much. Mostly because it's impossible to find a RTW dress that fits me off the rack. When I walked into a local boutique a few months ago and they ask what size I was so they could help me I listed three sizes that correspond to three parts of me. They laughed. Unfortunately it's true. I have never found a dress that fit me properly on top yet still fit over my bottom half (1-2 sizes larger). So dresses have been relegated to more formal occasions when I have been willing to fork out the time and money to get a dress taken in and/or out to fit.

Though I've sewn quite a few for my girls I had never yet sewn myself a dress. I'm not sure why not... probably because I never wear them. Ergo, I never bought myself any dress patterns.
Suddenly, recently, I've had a hankering to sew some dresses. I think it's the sewing blogosphere that has done it. I've had the opportunity to see different dress patterns on all shapes and sizes which really helps to figure out what will flatter me. So now I have two Style Arc dress patterns on the way and the By Hand London 'Anna' dress pattern recently arrived.

But when this stunning, cozy fabric called to me "DRESS!" I had no pattern on hand remotely appropriate for the type of dress it was asking to become.

For a reminder here's the photos I took of the fabric after my last Metro Textiles trip:

Having no pattern for the dress I was envisioning, I had the idea to find a top pattern and lengthen it. I trekked up to the attic to look through my pattern stash. I found a few sweater/sweatshirt type patterns that I briefly considered using but none of them were special enough to not be boring, yet simple enough for the fabric to still be able to shine. So I turned to my newest favorite... The Creative Cate! I used the skirt back from the "Ali Knit Skirt" pattern (that I haven't even sewn yet) as a guide since I had already added to that pattern to bring it to my preferred below knee length.

So where did the dress idea originate? I can possibly "blame" Kashi. I should have taken his advice. (I usually regret not listening to his suggestions) When he told me he had something beautiful I would love, and showed me this fabric he told me "Make a dress" I was like "Me? A dress? I think I'll make a nice warm top, I'll take a yard" He tried to suggest I take a bit more but this fabric was over 72" wide, a yard was going to be more than enough for a top. Bless his soul, Kashi cut me a 47" yard of this one. Good thing... because I have just exactly enough.

Anyone else ever had a fabric that just "told" you what it wanted to be despite your original plans for it?