New Look 6557 #2: Finished Dress

Here we go - my very first dress...finished :)

Apologies for the darkness and lack of head in the last photo - i spent ages with my timer trying to get the perfect shot but in the end i gave up. This is one drawback to living alone - nobody to help me photograph my garments!!

I'm very pleased with how it turned out. Despite carrying out extensive alterations on my muslin, the dress was initially still too big. This was quite easy to fix though, i just extended the side seams by sewing an extra 1/2" inside of each seam, which did the job and i think now that the fit is pretty much spot on. As an aside, one of my friends took a dress into a dry cleaners/alterations shop last weekend for exactly this adjustment, and they charged her £18 for it! I think this is crazy money to pay for what is essentially such a small job. I would have done it for her myself but it was a nice dress and i was afraid i might ruin it. When I'm more confident perhaps! Alterations are obviously where the money's at!!

Overall the pattern and instructions were very easy to follow, the only difficulty i had was when it came to the facings, which i have not done before, however i think i managed to figure it out in the end. I also added a lining, and underlined the midriff (thanks to everyone for their advice regarding interfacing vs. underlining!).

There are a few things i would do differently next time (and there very possibly will be a next time!), but I'm going to ignore the perfectionist in my head and concentrate instead on the things i am pleased with. As for my Crescent Skirt, i masked the raw edges of the lining and hem with bias binding to give it a neat finish. I really like the effect here. I do love a bit of bias binding!!

I am also quite pleased with my zip insertion...my best one yet i think :) You may not be able to see my zip in the picture below....this is a good thing, as that is kind of the point!!! Trust me though, it is there.

So that's one top (well, actually two!) and one dress down so far for my Holiday Wardrobe Challenge! One dress left to go....the Lonsdale Dress! The Sew-Along for this starts next week which i will be taking part in, and should be finished in time for my holiday. I just love it when a plan comes together!!

What is everyone else working on this weekend?

Knitted Square Count: 15 (I have stalled at the moment as I'm working on something else...more on this coming soon!)

K xx