Zigzag dress

This is from a pattern which I bought this year which I though would be ideal for floaty dresses for hot summer days.

I modified the bodice because I wanted it to just go over my head rather than have the button closure which is in the pattern.  This necessitated lowering and widening the neckline.  I also cut a larger size than I usually would because I wanted to be able to wear it over jumpers during the winter.  However... when I quickly tried it on having just sewn the shoulder seams, it was clear that there was too much width of fabric across my upper chest, so I cut the armholes two sizes smaller and that solved that issue.  Another modification was that I lengthened the frill  to make use of the full length of the fabric (3m), which I bought several years ago from Classic Textiles on the Goldhawk Road in London.  Rather than cut three frill pieces per the pattern I just used two full widths of the fabric, so in all there was 12" less fullness.

I cut the back bodice in one piece and lined rather than faced the bodice because this fabric is quite fine and I felt lining it would give it a better structure than just facing the neckline and binding the armholes (also, I didn't have any bias binding the right colour).

This meant that I had to pin the armholes together and topstitch them rather than sewing everything inside out and then turning it through.  This was a faff, so next time I make this pattern I'll put a seam in the centre back.  The pattern pieces for the pockets were for the other version of the skirt and wouldn't have worked with this one so I used the pockets from Tessuti Felicia which were what I had to hand.

Other changes for next time I make this - reverse the proportions of the skirt and the frill - I think it would look better with a longer skirt and shorter frill - and take the bodice side seams in.  I'm sure there will be summery versions of this next year.