Vogue designer dress, or ARGH

I saw this dress (Vogue 1395) on Lladybird, and I wanted it. The pattern seemed easy enough to get hold of, but there was no point if I didn't have the right fabric, I told myself, and I wasn't going to find a lovely black fabric with a pretty cherry print like that, was I? So I left it, riiiight up until the point where there was a half price sale on Vogue patterns and I was having a bad day and needed cheering up. It only sat in my pattern folder for about a week before I found some pretty black floral fabric of indeterminate make-up at Walthamstow Market that I thought might work, and I started making the dress the next day.

So, obviously it doesn't look as good as Lauren's, but then I'm new at this. Also I am so glad I read about her experience with this pattern, because the instructions were absolutely fucking terrible. This was the first Vogue pattern I made (I made this one pre-red skirt and am posting things out of chronological order because I'm a rebel now), and it put me off sewing up any of the other Vogues in my stash in case all their instructions were like these (luckily, they don't seem to be). I spent literally an hour and a half trying to work out how on earth to put the shoulders together, and I'm sure what I did isn't what it told me to do.

So in many cases, I did what she did. I did French seams (for the first time ever) rather than double-stitch all the seams because I am never going to double stitch all my seams without being given a bloody good reason, I took the shoulder seams up by 4/5cm because the neckline was all huge and loose and gapey, I entirely ignored all of their hemming instructions and I'm fairly sure I didn't put the facings on the way the instructions told me to either.

It has an overlay attached at the back which wraps round and ties in the front. It does not appear to enable the wearer to fly, which is a mark against it in my book.

I also didn't understand their instructions for sewing the elastic casing, though I'm not sure whether that's more my fault or the instructions'. So I literally just sewed the elastic onto the seam allowance of the skirt, which is maybe not a great long-term option, but meh. By the time I'd got to the elastic I was a tad bit annoyed by this dress and wasn't really thinking about its longevity. Also the hems really need redoing - I recently acquired a stupid cheap overlocker from Lidl because apparently that's a thing, and it looks easy enough to do a rolled hem on those.

RANDOM CHANGE OF SCENE FOR ONE PHOTO ONLY. Somehow the lining ended up being longer than the outer skirt even though I did a tiny hem on the outer fabric and a huge one on the lining. This was an earlier photo, in which you may or not be able to see that I accidentally folded the hem towards the outside because I am a moron. I've cut that off now, so hopefully the dress looks like a bit less of a derp in the newer photos.

Having finished this dress, I do like it, though I'm not sure when I might wear it. I was hoping it would be a good dress to go dancing in, but because of the way the overlay sits the ties ride up and create a boob shelf if I put my arms up, so I don't think it'll work for that. Also it's a bit short, and I'll definitely add to the length if I make another one. But since I've got very little negative ease in the elastic, it's incredibly comfy and will be an excellent dress for massive dinners.

You all wanted to spend some more quality time with my amazing shoes, right?

BEST SHOES. Oh, the dress? I might make it again in the summer, by which time I'll hopefully have a better handle on how to make the process of constructing this thing less of a pain in the arse.