Totally new dress! I bought this pattern ages ago, and finally finally made it up:

It’s Vogue 5121, and Liberty fabric (Doctor Tulloch). Here, check out the buttons:

They’re a little too far over … I’m going to have to move them over a tinch. They’re just plain ol’ plastic buttons from the fabric store. I can’t remember whether I bought them at the Hancock’s that was going out of business near my house in Chicago, or at Fabric Outlet in the Mission. Either way they match nicely, don’t they?

I’m very happy with the collar — I used Kathleen’s collar adjustment and it worked beautifully:

(More photos of the collar under construction at the bottom of this post.)

Also, this zipper is SO much better because wonderful reader BeckyW sent me a link to Ken’s Sewing Center, where I bought a zipper foot made especially for my Juki, and it is like night and day. It’s like going from a butter knife to a steak knife.

And, um, here’s the back. I thought about mirroring the print along that back center seam but I almost didn’t have enough fabric, so I decided against it.

Extra collar pictures! This is the underside — do you see how the seam is nudged to the back?

Here’s the other side, a little wonkier:

And  from the front (these were taken on my ironing board, thus the weird light):

And the other side:

This collar is a bit tricky, attachmentwise, so it was nice to have it all crisp and tidy for the rest of the seams.

I like this dress and want to make it much, much more. It’s really fun to wear. In fact, I made this version as a stunt dress, because I went to talk to some very nice folks at the ALA a few weeks ago, and this is what I wore. (With a bright pink belt and pink shoes.)

This was the second time I made this pattern; you’ll see the draft version tomorrow.