You’ve seen this dress before … it’s Simplicity 6894:

This dress was the trial-run version of this pattern. I believe I altered it to include pockets (which are very hard to see in this busy fabric, but there’s a picture in the link to the previous post) and (of course) adjusted the waist measurement. Also I knew I was going to need practice with these tucks:

After making this I got a great tip from readers of this blog: make the tucks in the YARDAGE first, then cut out the pieces (with the tucks folded up on the pattern piece) on top of it. It’s so much easier! (And of course, with that method, you can do tucks on just about any pattern that you like, as long as you allow for dart placement, etc.)

This is very old vintage fabric — I believe it was 36 inches wide — and I didn’t like it much to start with (thus its role as trial-run fabric) but it’s really grown on me. I love that dark gray and camel combo. I don’t love so much the sloppy collar points:

The side zip is okay. (For those of you asking “WHY ALL THE SIDE ZIPS?” I will do a post about that soon.)

And … here’s the back.

This dress turned out slightly over-large, but that makes it pretty comfy. (And easier to ride a bike in than it may look.)