This is dress is 1) Butterick 2344, and 2) wrong:
It’s the same pattern as Day 66, and suffers from some of the same problems that were due to my inexperience, plus a few extra that can be attributed to me picking the wrong fabric, like this roly-poly facing here:
There’s not enough understitching in the WORLD to keep this heavy pique from rolling. I could have superglued it down and it still would have rolled.
It’s ironic that the one thing I love about this dress is it’s fatal flaw — see how gorgeous this fabric is? It’s not its fault that I made it into the wrong thing:
Trying to put a regular zipper in was rage-inducing — this here is the point where I said “I’ll just wear a sweater over it“:
And here’s the whole back:
I’d like to say that I keep this dress around as an object lesson in not letting your fabric and pattern be star-crossed lovers, but really I keep it around because … I still like it. I think “oh maybe if I …” then I take it out and fondle it for a bit, and then I get distracted by a dress I can actually make/fix/wear and then back it goes into the suspended-animation storage tub. I should really cut up that huge heavy skirt and turn it into dresses for my nieces, who are now just at the age where little shift dresses (which would be GREAT in this fabric) are perfect.
Oh — in The-Hundred-Dresses-the-book news, did everyone see the perfect essay by John Waters on The Sack Dress in this month’s Bazaar? Unfortunately I can’t find it online, but it’s well worth grabbing the physical (US) magazine for.
A Dress A Day 
Gorgeous fabric! Too gorgeous not to be put to use… little dresses are a’ calling indeed.
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Love the fabric, it’s so pretty…it would match my living room so well! If, y’know, I were going to hang out in a dress in my living room looking pretty.
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well if you aren’t going to wear it, and they will – perhaps mention it to pique their interest.
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I have encountered your zipper problem now countless times in my own creations. And the innate ability to pick the wrong fabric for the task – despite always using the recommended fabric type. It’s a real pity that we come across those small problems, as dresses like yours look absolutely stunning.
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Hey, I love it. Just pretend that the facing is meant to be a feature and stitch it permanently out that way.
It may also be possible to put a side zipper in the dress instead of that single lap zipper – or use a self coloured (yellow for example) zipper and make it exposed! A feature.
I really hope you haven’t cut this one up already, it is beautiful.
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