Selfish Sewing Week Revision: Part 2

So, my first garment from Selfish Sewing Week was a fail... What about the second? My Lisette Diplomat dress:

If only my life involved a lot more standing around at cocktail parties I'd consider this dress a success. But sadly, it's not come out of the wardrobe again as I am continually having demands made of me that require me to move, bend, pick things up and generally move in ways that this dress just wouldn't allow.

All that moving around sometimes ends up with me finding myself in a fabric shop. How about that? And one day I found myself having moved about such that I was standing in front of a bolt of fabric that had that elusive bit of stretch that this dress lacked. It also had the great two-tone weave that I'd really liked about the first dress.

I also have some linen that I think would make a great sleeveless version of this dress so I was keen to try and sort the sizing out once and for all. I went up one size over all and then added another size through the hips. I graded the pattern out over a 6" section starting at the waist. I also added 1&1/4" to the length, just cause I like a just below the knee length, and because I still have that bump on my inner leg from the stupid motorist who ran me over

I don't know how it happened but I found my completed dress front was a good half inch longer than the dress back. The stretch in this fabric let me get away with that but I'll have to check my pattern pieces before trying it with the linen.

I really struggled with the zip. The fabric wanted to stretch and it looked so wavy. It would shift such that I had to sew downwards on both sides but the folded neck facing at the top was so thick and was an awful spot to try to start stitching from. Nightmarish. I pulled it out and resewed it about three times before deciding it was good enough even though I know it could be better.

This time I've sewn a dress I definitely will wear. Arguably it could probably be a bit better fitted just under the arms and through the waist, but it's super comfy as it is. Perfect everyday dress.

In fact, as you read this I'm probably wearing it right now....

This post was brought to you by blogger's scheduled posting 'cause I'm on holidays. Yippee!

Can you guess where I am? Here's a Self Portrait with a Monkey as a clue: (try Google if you need more help!)

Apologies if that image just broke your computer screen!

See you all again soon!