A Frock by Saturday

OK, I do know that it's Sunday but... I finished my frock yesterday, during the Kentucky-Louisville game. Go Cats. Just so y'all know... I'm a HUGE college football fan. Not fanatic or anything, but I really do enjoy it, and so starting at 12:21 for the kickoff of the UGA-UL-Lafayette game (Go Dawgs!), until I just couldn't stand it anymore last night about 10:30, it was college football! Bottom line, though, is that I just wasn't up to frock fotography. As I write this, I'm watching my alma mater, SMU, try to come back against Texas Tech!

Anyway, back to the dress... This morning, I actually did a little more tweaking, but here it is:

 So this is a combination of the skirt part of McCalls 5466, available free from printsew.com, and the Alexander blouse pattern from BurdaStyle. I did attach them, making it a dress.

Things I like:

• that it's a dress.
• the fit and my method of taking up the extra fabric in the skirt by sewing the pleats all the way to the hem. This helped eliminate the skirt poofiness which exaggerated my own natural poofiness. Now it looks like there are seams.
• the belt loops, and the covered buttons. You can't see the belt loops in any of the pics, but I had a bit of extra from the button loops, and it was perfect for belt loops.
• the peplum. Ordinarily, peplums can be dicey affairs, but I've already got the tummy, and it seems to camouflage it nicely. Am I in denial?
• the lapped zipper and the back vent.

 Things I don't like:

• I'm not crazy about the color on me. The blouse portion is a gray silky-feeling cotton, originally purchased to be a flower girl dress.
• I think the ruffly sleeves may be just a bit twee. Roland didn't like them.
• I'm not crazy about the skirt fabric. I think I mentioned this is from a fabric.com warehouse sale where you bought fabric by the pound. It's a poly-blend suiting fabric that doesn't really want to hold a crease.
• The gapping of the buttons. Because there is a back zipper, the buttons are really just decorative, and I'm going to slipstitch the opening closed.

 It was a fun project, though perhaps a bit ambitious for a quickly made frock, and definitely not a beginner project. I'm working on a little bohemian wrap dress right now, that actually isn't taking that long. And I'm so excited about the navy wool I ordered for my Lady Grey coat! I'll show you pictures when it arrives.