It's A Keeper

I made a new dress.  The first version of New Look 6145, I was not 100% happy with and in hindsight I think fabric choice may have had a lot to do with it.  Last time I made the dress out of stretch cotton sateen and I felt it was just to big and the neckline too wide. This time I chose wool silk from The Fabric Store. For this version, I narrowed the neckline by 1.5cm on each side.

I did manage to make a rather large mistake.  The dress was coming together nicely when I realised that the grey squares were not symmetrical and my pattern matching at the side seams was off by one square.  Oh No!  I did not have enough fabric left to cut a new front and love the fabric so wasn't willing to scrap the project.  Fortunately in this instance anyway, I am a vertically challenged person and there was enough length to just recut the front one square shorter.  I actually really like the shorter length at this time of the year with tights and boots.

My original vision for this dress had an exposed zip at the back but in the end I discovered the perfect length regular zip in my stash so couldn't justify the extra expense of an exposed zip. I had also planned to include bias cut patch pockets but this was abandoned for fear of appearing too busy.  I like the simpler silhouette much better.

I am really thrilled with how this worked out.  I love this dress and the pattern really works in a non stretch fabric.  I have decided this pattern is a keeper after all.