January’s Plaid Poppy Dress

I should probably start writing about my monthly dress posts right when I finish the dresses, pictures or not, because once a couple months have passed, I might have forgotten all those little details.  I’ve racked my brain this morning though, and I think I remember what I did with this one, New Look 6390.

I googled a little bit about it before I started to see if anyone had any hiccups or recommendations.  I didn’t find anything, just a few others’ makes that made me even more excited to get started on it myself.  I cut the size 12, better to be too big than too small, and right away it seemed I was going to have a bodice that was way too long – always seems to be the case.  I remedied this by leaving the waistband off completely.  I also noticed that this one was going to be lined, and as much as I dislike lining a dress (I haven’t successfully lined a dress yet), I told myself to just do it, I’m never going to get over this if I don’t start sometime.

I made version C, and it was a pretty easy make.  The most time consuming thing was transferring the pattern markings to the dress, but that’s always tedious, so nothing out of the ordinary.  With the missing waistband, the fit was perfect.  It’s a princess seamed bodice, and the lining came out just fine as well.  I didn’t do any fancy lining attachments to the zipper or skirt, just serged the two parts together and attached the skirt and zipper.  My inside seams still look neat, they are serged, but the serged ends are not hidden or anything like that.  (Does that make sense?) Here’s the dress inside out.

The skirt has no gathers and no pleats and it’s been awhile since I’ve made a skirt like this.  Not having to do any extras with it, made this one a little quicker to make than some of my others.  I won’t complain about that.  No pockets though, and I did complain a tiny bit about that when I wore the dress and had no where to keep my lip balm.  I could have made my own pockets, but nah, I didn’t have time for that.

The dress was done and I tried it on only to find that the top was too baggy.  I took the straps in about an inch, then tried it on and the top was still a little too loose.  I thought I could wash it in hot water to shrink it perhaps, or maybe add a couple of darts or some type of overlapping in the front bodice?  I also thought to leave it as is, wear it once with a sweater buttoned up the whole time, and then never wear it again.  I didn’t know what to do, so I folded it up and forgot about it for a month.  Then when the boy was couch-bound the day of his wisdom teeth surgery, I got my seam ripper out and started taking it apart.  I figured I’d fix it right and take the princess seams in some, but then that would mean I’d have to redo the straps.  Not what I had planned, so I fixed all of my problems by making a 1/2 inch seam down the center front of the bodice.  Problem fixed and with much less seam ripping.  I also adjusted the side seams of the skirt to line up with the bodice before attaching the two together again.

I do have a seam down the front center, but this doesn’t bother me.  This is my wearable muslin, and I know for future reference to size down at the top, but leave the waist the same, cause it fit perfectly.  For future reference, if I want the waistband I am going to have to cut some off the bottom of the bodice.  I am happy with the dress without it though.

I think I will make one more of these with my added corrections before I try B or C from the pattern.  But, it’s not gonna be made any time soon.  I have so many unused patterns that I’d like to try and make something from first.

Hopefully, my dress still looks enough like the one I intended from the picture even with the few modifications I made on mine.  I am happy with it, so that’s all that really matters.  🙂

These pictures on the other hand, not sure how I feel about them.  It had been raining for days and I thought the only way I’d get any taken was inside the house.  These were the best I had.  I evidently need to brush up on my self-photography skills.  😉