Grey Pinstripe Dress

[This was made over a month ago - I was keeping this until I was able to get a picture in it, but it seems it's not happening, so I'm just going to go ahead and post..]

This is the dress that made me cry. Pathetic but true.

A while back, I decided to finally use up the pinstripe fabric I'd had leftover from my infamous skirt from university;

Yeah, I made an arseless skirt in my first year.

So I decided to draft up a dress that would take away the "office-y" nature that pinstripe always has, with a sweetheart neckline, princess seams and a circle skirt.

My problem with self-drafted patterns is that I am severely bad at fitting. I mean seriously bad.

And I'm also pretty bad at keeping patience with my toiles - because of this, the bodice was pulled apart about five times. This caused so much frustration I actually cried. You know your mind is too far gone when you're crying over a dress, that's for sure.

Definitely going to end up crazy and alone.

Oooh! Insides!

Bizarrely enough, after four years of fashion, this is the first time I've ever actually lined anything, my first sweetheart neckline and the first time I've ever done bust darts! Once the crying was over and the offending bodice was almost fitting right in the end..

I managed to mess the skirt up by cutting it sliiightly short - making my brilliant idea of matching the stripes completely unattainable - yet again. Hello easing.

But although this dress happened to go quite badly for the most part, I managed to try out something different;

This is actually quite embarrassing to show..

A horrifically hand-sewn zipper and a first try at a catch-stitched hem! I used bias tape because I'd ran out of fabric and it was on the short side length-wise, and wanted to preserve as much length as possible!

At least it's somewhat invisible!

Overall, I'm not too impressed with the dress. I think I managed to take away the office-y look of it, but it's still not quite fitting right, and I feel that I should, and could, of done better.

As they say - to sew is to learn.

This is as close to a "wearing" picture as it will get until I can either get my tripod fixed or force my boyfriend to start taking pictures!

Melody ♪