First things first – I loved how this dress (Butterick 5676) looked when I finished sewing it together, pressed it, and hung it on a coat hanger.  I was also quite happy when I put it on, despite noticing some small fitting issues.  Then I saw the photos.  And felt quite despondent.  This dress looked SO much better to me in real life!

I suppose that I should start with what I like about it.

• the colour
• the hand top-stitching – I LOVE the hand top-stitching!  And yes, I chose the copper brown perle cotton
• the fabric – ponte is incredibly comfortable to wear and easy to sew.  I bought it from Spotlight.
• the shaped panels
• the sleeve length
• the skirt length
• the v-neckline

And now to what I don’t like:

• the sleeve heads puff up too much; I think that there is too much ease.  I may unpick the sleeves and both shave a bit off the sleeve cap and cut the armhole in further.  It looks way too wide across the back shoulders.
• all those bloody wrinkles across the centre back.  Do I need a sway back adjustment?  I didn’t make my usual short torso adjustment on this dress, due to all those panels on the front.  Maybe I should have?

I really did almost feel like crying after I saw the photos.  I wore the dress all day to work yesterday, and felt good it it – before I saw the photos!  The colour suits me, it’s extremely comfortable to wear, and was work appropriate.  But in these photos the fit just doesn’t look as it could.

In terms of the sizing, I cut size 12 through the neckline and sleeves, and widened to a 14 around the body.  I left out the zip, because I used ponte, and used both the overlocker and the machine for construction.  The hem is actually just secured with vliesofix at this stage; I’m still considering a row or three of the same hand top-stitching around the hem as elsewhere on the dress.

I went out for dinner last night wearing this dress and my All Shawl.  A woman sitting nearby leaned over at the end of the evening and complimented me on my shawl – describing it as a “statement piece” and admiring the way that it draped.  I felt so much better after that!

And thankfully, the other dress that I made recently is a hit – I wore it to work today and had lots of unsolicited compliments! Hooray! I’ll blog it next.