'50s Party Dress! Sort of

You might remember that at the beginning of June, I was yapping about making a dress to wear to Claire's wedding. Well, her wedding party was on the 19th and I didn't go naked. Behold!

The somewhat '50s party dress, based on another version of Simplicity 2588. I'm pretty happy with the dress all around, there are a lot of "bests" and "betters" tied in with it. For example, the bumps on the back zipper are much closer to non-existent, the zipper is well-installed, I actually used a method to hem the skirt (ganked from Gertie's blog), and I minimized my "winging it" with...some of the more critical parts. Now, if only I could find a belt that really matches it.

See, the bump in the back is way smaller, I think the dress is just a skidge too long for my torso and I need to slash out some of that length. Also, the top of the dress doesn't gap as much as the grey workdress I made. Yes, the bump is still there, but these are the little victories.

Here is something else I'm proud of. I tried on the pieces of the dress when I was stitching up the bodice to see if it was going to fit. It seemed like the dress would not be able to contain my midsection so I ripped out the back darts and made them much shallower and completed the dress from there. The dress was complete and I try it on and...something's not right. The damn thing is approximately one size too large in the midsection. Curses! But! Instead of just leaving it as-was and never wearing it again, I ripped the dress apart and re-installed the darts in their full capacity and--huzzah!--a dress that fits! Go me! I didn't wallow in my mistakes! (Chris might report otherwise, but that is another story.)
So yes, this dress is complete and in time for Make It, Wear It challenge. Whee!