My 1975 Ditsy Floral Dress -Work in progress

This week after finishing my inchies I moved on to this 1975 dress pattern, a Style pattern 1195, which I have been wanting to make up since my friend bought it for me about a year and a half ago.  I got this fabric which is a cotton lawn from last years Sewing For Pleasure with this pattern in mind and it has been sitting in my stash ever since. 

I am making view 1, the red polka dot one on the right, which has sweet little puffy sleeves and en empire line.  I quite like the ruffles on the other two patterns but I think for this fabric it will look better without.  I like the idea of making one in a plainer fabric with coloured ruffles though, or the other way around. 

When I opened the packet I found out that it had already been cut out.  I don't normally cut out vintage patterns but as this one already had been it was easier to do a tissue fit with it to work out if it needed alterations than the paper I usually use to trace patterns. 

If you look closely you can see where the dressmaker has altered the size of some of the pieces, though I don't think it is done in a conventional way, just chopping a bit off here and there!  She also cut the bottom off the skirt...

....but helpfully included it in the pattern packet and marked it as to whether it was the front or the back.  When fitting I decided the empire line was a little high on the bust so I added 1.5cm as I hate it when empire dresses come up too high and cut across the bust, which happens in some ready to wear dresses I have.  I also took a fair bit out of the length of the skirt, but not wanting to lose the fullness I folded the pattern over and re-drew the side seams to even it out.  I am a beginner at altering patterns but these weren't major improvements so I will see how they turn out.

Bodice Front

I have sewn the bodice together, then the skirt and the skirt to the bodice and it currently looks like this.

I had a little bit of trouble with the darts not sitting quite right but I made them a tiny bit longer and they seem better now, I think I should have sewn them with smaller stitches.  I like how it looks so far, narrow at the waist and fuller at the bottom of the skirt, it will most likely have a longish hem as it is still pretty long on me and I want it to be knee length.