P-P-P-Polkadots!

I've spoken about Rolls and Rem's remnant table before, right? This is yet another great find. Similar fabric to the Striped skirt I made, this is a stiff canvas-like cotton which just behaves beautifully through a machine, and provides great structure for a flared dress such as this one.

The pattern I used for this dress was an altered version of the No Cock Nor Tails dress I made several years ago - the difference being that I added a ruched bustline by taking the bust of the pattern, slashing and spreading, and gathering it. I opted to keep it with a frill instead of setting it into the bodice, but that was mainly just pure laziness on my part. It looks pretty adorable with the ric rac trim though, right?

The dress was actually made a whole year ago before I went on a night out - believe it or not! I had a real problem with overestimating the ease and the whole thing was massive and generally badly-fitting. So it got thrown in the wash and was set aside in my ever-mounting pile of alterations for another day.
Then after a re-discovery, I threw it through my machines and thought that was that.

But readers. This is me, and I am not a lucky person. The bloody thing shrunk in the wash without me realising, so the dress is preeeeeetty damn tight now. And I even had to cut out the bust of the original pattern (which at this point pretty much served as a lining for the ruching) just to make sure I wasn't giving myself pancake boobs!

However. The damn thing juuuust about fits, and quite frankly I love it. I'm still a bit of a sucker for a polka dot every now and then, and the off-white polkadots are a really welcome addition to my black obsession recently!

So! Lets get down to the nitty-gritty, yes? The dress is unlined (the fabric is thick enough without that!) but the neckline and straps are faced, and all the seams are overlocked. The hem was done with bias tape as I find it's really just the easiest way to hem a full circle skirt without any weird puckering.
And you'll be shocked to hear this, but there are NO POCKETS in this dress. I'd originally planned on patch pockets with ric rac trim, but honestly it looked pretty stupid and I've never really gotten around to popping in some in-seam ones - it might happen one day when I get too frustrated with keeping my phone in my bra, though.