Mission Accomplished

If I am looking rather pleased with myself in the picture above, well, that is because I am.  Very rarely do I make something that feels like it fits like a glove but this dress truly does.  I had been coveting it ever since I saw Robyn's lovely version earlier this year.  Since I had the perfect piece of ponti in my collection from my very first op shop fabric haul, and I was running out of cooler weather to wear it, I had to act now. 

The pattern I used is Butterick 5672.  Because ponti is a rather heavy and quite stable knit, I cut the dress out to one size larger than I would normally. This caused me a little concern because the pattern calls for an invisible zip and I was worried that it would cause some fitting issues, but I needn't have worried because the sizing was bang on and other than let the skirt out a little to make it a looser fit, this was the only change I needed to make.  I did however leave out the skirt lining.  I felt that due to the thickness of my fabric choice, skirt lining was unnecessary.  I did line the bodice with a turquoise blue remnant of nylon tricot that was in my stash and simply hand stitched it at the waist seam once my dress was complete.  I felt also that the dress being of quite a heavy knit, that short sleeves were a little impractical for the type of weather I would be wearing it in so I added 10cm to the length to create a 3/4 sleeve version.  I finished the dress off by hemming the sleeves and the bottom with a machine stitched invisible hem.

Wouldn't you know it, I have waited days for the sun to shine long enough to take a photo of me wearing this dress and just after I give up and take the photo, the sun comes out!