Here It Is, Blinged and Spanxed!

Oh, hooray, it's finally finished after 2 days of tweaking! Let's just admire the fabric and the first 10 seconds of, "I think that turned out nicely," before we pick it apart.



Now, in the photo above, why is my left boob so much larger than my right? (This photo looks like something hanging over a fireplace, what with the dog, hmmm? We had a hard time keeping him out of the picture.) Maybe I need to tug on it...was the padded bra twisted? I don't notice this in the mirror - only in pictures.

And the photo below initially looks like I have a huge bicep, but that's the side of my chest showing. That's my only complaint with this dress, is that it seems to stretch every time I put it on and the front sides threaten to expose more and more "rib meat."



Which leads us to my major design change (besides the side slit) - I opted not to tie the thing around my neck for 2 reasons. First, it felt funny with the knot right up on my throat, and second, I needed a little support on the back to hold the dress up. When I bent over, the dress would roll down and expose the bra. I tried the elastic in the seam allowance trick, but that was too puckery, so I came up with this. Now obviously the right side is higher for some reason. I think if I just tug the strap tighter on that side it'll loosen up in the back.



And it's funny that I don't see the big wrinkles my mom and I were working on feverishly yesterday. I ripped that back seam twice to try and fix it, but the final diagnosis was off-grain cutting. We tried re-pinning the seam allowance and ironing it twice to no avail. (The funniest picture would've been her ironing the bottom of the seam while I was wearing it, backed up to the ironing board with the dress hiked up - yikes! It's just a pain to yank on and off repeatedly. My apologies to any neighbors who may have been incensed.)

Anyway, this is a trial run tonight, where the average age of the crowd is around 70, so they don't see so good at night anyway, right? (Watch out, I'm an equal opportunity offender!) Then I have 2 weeks to redo any boo-boos before New Orleans. So let fly with your suggestions, okay? Let's keep it honest - you won't hurt my feelings. I thought about embellishing the straps on the back with something so they don't look so much like overalls, but maybe they're okay. And my mom hooked me up with some of my grandmother's jewelry, so that brooch on the knot jazzed the front up. (Was it supposed to be a Star of David, Mom, or is that just coincidental?)

And here's what I did in 30 minutes on Friday - I finally got to cut out a muslin of Butterick 5391.



They ARE fast and easy, but the legs are much larger than suggested by the pictures and line drawings. I grabbed this pattern on sale before I read the reviews. I'm going to try again with the skinny-leg version, because the back of these is actually flattering, but I really need pockets. Anyway, I'm happy I got to sew something besides the dress this week.



And I grabbed a couple of patterns at the Vogue sale. You know I got 7762 because there's a shapely blonde I hope I'll look like when I wear that dress, and I love those long sleeves. But seriously, how practical is that dress and where would I wear it? Not to a dinner party - I'd get food all over the sleeve or knock over my wine glass.



And I got the Betzina 1173 because she showed us this top when she was here last year and it was stinking cute! The dress looks like a sack and she couldn't believe that was the one that dominates the pattern envelope, but apparently she doesn't have control over what they highlight.



Anyway, thanks for stopping by and let me know your thoughts.