At last, I've finished something! I actually got the body assembled last sunday and have been stealing minutes here and there to hem and insert the zipper (I do that by hand so it takes forever... but it always turns out better than when i do it by machine). Finally this morning I applied the bias and finished the neck and armholes!

I don't know how visible it is, but the eyelet on the bodice runs vertical. I added a front panel to the skirt that also runs vertical, and did the rest horizontal. I've seen this detail in other dresses and figured this pattern was good for a test run, because if I didn't like how it came out, it would be barely discernable anyway, because the pattern is hard to see.

I'll post an action shot later this week. The obvious way of wearing this dress is with a white slip underneath (to keep it decent), white belt, and white shoes. But I'm also thinking that a black slip underneath, with a black belt and black shoes might actually look really good as well. I'll have to experiment.

I've signed up for the sewretro sew-a-long. My intended dress is the colllared straight dress in the aqua reef dot. I have all the pieces cut but haven;t started yet - after the recent sewing drought I really wanted to do something quick and satisfying (like the dress I just did) before tackling a new and confusing pattern. However, sewretro projects are due the end of July, so the aqua shirt dress is next in the project queue.