Anne Adams 4776

I originally started drafting this post over a year ago, got around to the hemming stage of this dress, and set it aside for some reason.  Maybe because I'd originally intended this to be a first day of school dress for last year, and didn't get it finished?  Maybe I'd worked on it, decided I wasn't happy with the fit, and meant to come back to it later? And then didn't really have a need for a fancy-ish dress?

In any case, on Monday, a call went out to wear school colors for the first day, and I remembered I had this mostly finished.    So of course, after sitting folded off in a corner for more than a year, I went to work on it at 11 pm, the night before I wanted to to wear it.

Pattern: Anne Adams 4776

Fabric: Rag and Bone textured cotton (here), muslin for underlining

Notions: 22" zipper

I fell in love with this pattern illustration when it popped up in my pinterest feed, saw it was my size, and pounced.  And all I could picture it in was red.  Bright red.  And okay, I kind of wanted her hair, too.

When it came in the mail, I couldn't wait to trace it and muslin it, pretty sure it might be a disaster after all my excitement.  And honestly? Not so bad!  The gathers are designed to hit right at the natural waist, which fell a little low, so I shortened the bodice all the way around with a 1/2 inch tuck, and that's it. Well, and I shortened it.  Like by 4-6 inches.  I honestly don't remember at this point.  Which leads me to beleive this pattern was drafted for an Amazonian.  The illustration shows the skirt ending mid-knee?  Much closer to tea-length as drafted.

As far as the pattern goes, I need to add here two great things:

1.  This pattern has options for short and 3/4 length sleeves, and the side bodice pieces have different markings for whether you're sewing the sleeveless vs. sleeved version.  So I love that there are built-in higher armholes for the sleeveless version.

2.  The directions included in this pattern were 9 steps, confined to the bottom half of one side of a sheet of paper.  The remaining space was devoted to cutting layouts and technical drawings on the front, and general sewing tips on the back.  The directions made sense, but they pretty much assume you know what you're doing.

Unfortunately, this pattern does not recommend any specific type of fabric, so I figured something medium weight with body would work.

It's not perfect, by any stretch, but it was pretty comfy, and I may yet come back to fix it. 

I need to decide if I'm okay with it as is, or if I want to come back and tinker more.

My son took these for me after the first day was over, so I have a lot of wear wrinkles, but there are still quite a few fitting wrinkles, too.  

And in full disclosure, that one on the bottom front is a hem wrinkle from the catch-stitching the hem to the muslin underlining too high up.  It's an easy fix; I blame the olympics and the late hour there.

Here's a wrinkly back shot.  The collar is supposed to attach in the back with a hook and eye, but I liked it this way when I first worked on this dress.  The collar lays a little softer in the front without the hook.  I can see a little extra ease in the lower back, and some pulling at the back armhole.  They are very closely cut armscyes, and I may need to scoop them out a little.  They have facings which are tacked down, but a bias finish would lay smoother since the fabric is pretty thick.

I'm standing awkwardly on a sloping driveway; the hem is actually even across the back.

Here's a weird picture of the front, that looks relatively smooth, but you can still see a wrinkle there in the front armscye where it might lay smoother if I scooped out the armscye a bit.

Here's a better view of the same issue: 

So, what should I do: live with it as is, or pick out the armhole facings and do some adjusting?