Butterick 5314 - again

The dress is finished! (Actually, it has been finished for almost a week now but all this working from sunup to sundown left no time for pictures.) It turned out a little bit different from what I had originally envisioned because the fabric would not cooperate (or perhaps it was the pattern piece that wasn't quite right, I'm not really sure), but I like it a lot anyway.

Here's how it looks with just a ribbon tied at the waist:


Please note the bias binding on the armholes, made from the same fabric as the collar. It was inspired by Carolyn who does amazing things with contrast fabrics. (I'm just such a solid-color person that it has taken me years of reading Carolyn's blog to wrap my head around the concept.) The ribbon at the waist was inspired by Ann's comment on the previous dress. I wanted a nice rayon petersham ribbon but as the local choices are extremely limited, I used the polyester ribbon from JoAnn's. I also wanted the ribbon to have a pretty bow and a hidden snap closure but sewing the polyester ribbon was so frustrating that in the end I went with a simple knot instead.

Here the dress is fully accessorized:


I used a piece of the collar fabric as a scarf/tie on the handbag handle, and on the hat a wider ribbon that matches the belt.
Here's a better picture of the hat and its ribbon (please excuse the crazy-lady-pondering-murder look on my face):



I have three fabrics washed and ready to cut. I think they're all going to be a version this dress. I really like it that much. Is that crazy?

Slow going

I've been working on another dress from Butterick 5314. I wanted to make view A. I really did. I cut it out of the same white cotton jacquard used for the previous dress. I cut the draped collar from a beautiful shades-of-blue poly left over from another project.
It should have been perfect.
It wasn't.

The collar didn't drape enough at all. I cut a new one after measuring very carefully but it had too much fabric to ease into the neckline. I re-cut, re-pinned, and re-basted that sucker a million four or five times. No go.

Finally, I'd had it. I had another view B collar cut out of the white cotton (I don't know why I cut two but now I'm glad I did) so I cut one from the blue fabric and basted the two together so they could be handled as one layer. The blue poly by itself didn't have enough body for a stand-up collar but with the cotton inside, it's perfect. Now I just need to make a matching ribbon belt and the dress will be ready to wear.