Red New Girl Dress - Finished!

I finished my dress!  I actually completed it in time to wear it to the meal the day before the wedding I went to at Easter.  I didn't have enough time to make a dress for the wedding itself as I had intended but at least I got this one done.  Once I had put the skirt in I realised the weight of it meant the bodice fit was off.  Luckily I remedied this by pinching out a wedge of fabric at the neck to shoulder seam which pulled all the darts back into position as if by magic!  This did reduce the size of the neckhole though (which I didn't think about at the time) so it is a little snug to get on and off.  

 I am really happy with how it turned out.  I decided to make the capped sleeves in the end and now I am glad I did as I think they balance out the skirt portion.  The skirt itself is a half circle skirt that I drafted using a really useful tutorial on the Snug Bug Blog and she even has a handy dandy circle calculator!  I have lined the skirt too as I thought it would give it a bit of body and I really love the result.  I do need to take the lining hem up a little as it does occasionally peek out but that is no big deal.

Back view

 I had real trouble getting the side zip in this one.  The fabric and lining meant it was so thick that my zipper foot kept slipping off the guideline of the zip and stitching through the teeth.  Not good.  In the end I hand sewed the zip and it turned out much better than when I do them by machine!  I think this might be my new way forward.  I hate zips but love hand sewing so maybe I can combine the two.

You can't really see the bodice sections in these photos, but they do show up better in real life.  I had to adjust the brightness as it has rained ALL DAY today and I couldn't wait any longer to take pictures.  The actually dress I made is quite different than the New Girl one but I think my version is more wearable and the bright red has really cheered me up on such a miserable day.  I can see myself making this pattern up again, I really think it would look great with a contrasting colour fabric in the bodice side sections and with a pencil skirt.  Oh the possibilities!