New Look 6723 - Snow White Dress

This is my second version of New Look 6723, the first version is here.  This took a bit longer to make than I expected for two reasons.  The first one was that I had a cold virus thingy which knocked me out a bit, I was only fit for lying on the sofa in my jammies with my TV blanket and crocheting.

The second one was that I had to make some alterations.  I knew I wanted to shorten the length of the bodice some more, and also to alter the front of the neckline a bit (more of that below), and did both before I started.  But then I ended up having to take the sides in considerably.  I only discovered this after I had attached the skirt.   Cue much unpicking. This was entirely my own fault, because I had to do the same thing with the first version, but stupidly forgot to alter the pattern pieces.  They have been altered now!

 

So, consequently, it lay untouched for a while.  There was one good thing that came of this though.  On my first version, I cut the largest size on the skirt because I wanted to pleat it instead of gather it.  So on this one I wasn't sure what size to cut the skirt, so just cut the biggest size again thinking I'd cut it down a bit before I put the skirt together. 

 

I remembered after I had sewn the skirt up, including adding pockets!  There was no way that I was going to start unpicking pockets, and I love how the skirt turned out.   It's really sitty-out, which is what I wanted.  I think the skirt in the photo on the pattern envelope is very lack-luster.

 

The fabric is Black Apple Print cotton poplin from Minerva Crafts, it is £6.99 per metre.  I bought 3 metres, and used about 2.5 metres.  It's lovely fabric, and I'm very pleased with it.  I'm calling this my Snow White dress because that's what the red apples made me think of.  I think this would look well with one of those really skinny plastic belts in red, or black.  So I'll have to look out for one.

 

I added some red piping to the neckline, but I wasn't sure whether to put it around the armholes too, so didn't.  I thought it might be a bit uncomfortable to wear.

 

The colours look very washed out in this photo.

As mentioned above, I find that my previous version gapes a bit at the neck, so I made the below adjustment.  This is from Fits For Real People.  I'm just noticing that it says "no more that 1/4" ".  Um, my adjustment was 3cm, which is about 1 1/8"!  But, you know what, it worked.

This pattern doesn't have facings, as the bodice is supposed to be lined.  I'm not a big facing fan (too much of a faff), and normally use bias tape; but I thought I'd embrace the facing and drafted a neckline facing as I didn't fancy my chances at attaching bias tape to the piping.  I attempted an armhole facing, but it was a bit of a dog's breakfast, so I went with the bias tape there.

I used Tasia's tutorial on adding a fabric square onto the bottom of the zip.  It's not really my best work, but it's ok.

And here's a photo with a cardigan over it.  Because, let's face it, I live in Belfast, so the chances of wearing this dress without a cardigan and tights are slim to nothing!

 

Thank you for the lovely comments on my Mathilde Blouse in my last post.  Mathilde No2 is already in production, and here's what the fabric is like:

Lynne