A cozy dress for February

I admit that I love wearing dresses.  They are super easy to wear, and look super cute.  I love not having to find matching pieces, they are outfits in themselves!

So I've decided I'm going to make a dress a month for 2012.   I've already made two and its only mid February, so I figure it's a goal I could actually achieve!  And I already have the pattern and fabric for my next one.

But back to this month's dress then

It's soft and cozy, being made from kind of a brushed cotton I guess, not sure what else to call it.  I bought a bunch on super end of season clearance sale, after using it to make Mr. Ohm (that's my new name for the Husband) a cowl from the fabric for Christmas.

I knew I wanted to make a wintery dress, something with longer sleeves and a high neck.  I almost made this dress, but realize the fabric probably was going to overpower the details and it wasn't so much my style, so I went with the simpler Simplicity 2444 instead.  I had previously pinned this version of the dress and hoped a sleeved version would work with the fabric.

I have to say its probably not the best fabric for certain aspects and the fabric is pretty soft, with no really body or stiffness.  But I think that really just means the pleats in the skirt aren't so obvious.  With interfacing the collar is ok, but it would likely look better being more standupish, but I still like it.

I also attempted to resize the pattern in advance.  In my previous dress making attempts I would just make the closest average size and take side seams in as necessary.  It's worked before, but I thought I'd be more proactive this time.

That meant I had to scale the pattern from a size 12 at the shoulders and for the bodice length (I have broad shoulders for a skinny gal and a long torso) down to a 4 through the bust and bodice, back to a 10 for the waist and for the skirt.   In the end I had to take the bodice and waist in a teensy bit more, but it was pretty close over all!  12 was the largest size and my shoulders just fit, it actually pulls a bit across them, but it's ok (hmm or maybe the sleeves were to skinny?).  But I think the 12 also made the collar too wide for my skinny neck and so it can't stand up like it should.  In hindsight I probably should have scaled back the collar area to an 8.

I did the pattern adjustments based on my actual measurements compared to the measurements of the pattern pieces.  The pattern allows 3 inches of ease, which to me is a lot through the bust and waist, so I only accounted for maybe 1 inch of ease and it made it fit more like I thought it should.  One thing I think I may try with future dresses is a proper small bust adjustment, I'm only an A cup (mind you thanks to a still nursing babe I'm still a tad bit larger than pre-baby) but most dresses expect you to be a B so I think an adjustment would better than just taking in the sides in future.

And with an added belt (it looks blah without it)  I like it!

So that was a longer post than planned.  I always say I'm going to try to write less with posts as I think people probably won't read everything and look at the pictures, but I can't seem to!  I suppose I like writing my thoughts on the patterns down for future reference.

So anyone else have any sewing goals yet for this year?  Anyone else up to making a dress a month?  I wonder if there is some challenge like that, that I could join somewhere in blogland...