Simplicity 1882

Invisible zip insertion + gale force winds

Fabric: cotton/rayon chambray + navy cotton lawn for lining
Pattern: Simplicity 1882 
Notions: 22" invisible zip, thread
Time to complete: 3 weeks off and on

First off, my dress is wrinkly for several reasons:
 1) these pictures were taken after work, after dinner, and after playing in the yard for a couple of hours--we can say a good 12 hours after putting it on in the morning, 
2) natural fibers wrinkle, and 
3) it was pretty windy, which makes for terrible pictures of a dress.  At one point, the wind died down, but I had already lost my  photographer to working on his car.  

I'm getting the evil 'this-is-the-last-shot' eye

The pattern calls for you to baste all seams wrong sides together, check the fit, then resew.  That sounded like too much work, so I made a muslin of the bodice, tweaked it, and went from there.  It is drafted for different cup sizes, and that seemed to work well, but that's not usually an area I have a problem with making commercial patterns fit.  What's nice is that there really isn't a whole lot of ridiculous ease built into the pattern, and the side seams have 1" allowances, so there is room for personalization.  I went my standard route and cut a 12 for the bodice and 14 for the skirt; debated the 'curvy' fit skirt, but in the end went with the middle choice.  I *did* take out about an inch in the top center back due to excessive gaping, but I wish I realized earlier that the collar would be affected, too, when I shortened the neckline.  
Oops. 
I made it work, though, by adjusting where they met in the front.

I opted out of using piping along the waist seams, and instead used white thread to top-stitch along the collar, waistline, and hem.
Other than that, I omitted the facings, and lined the bodice with some navy lawn by making a second copy of the bodice and stitching  it along the neckline and zipper.  I used self-fabric bias strips to finish the sleeve openings, and hand sewed them to the lining.  At the waistline, I hand-tacked the bottom of the lining to the skirt's seam allowance.

In other news, I've started the Robson coat!  I've been working on it slowly for about a week, and it's starting to look like a coat!  Wooo hoo!