Simplicity 2281

This post may be a bit disjointed because I am not feeling all that much like writing it.  I made the dress, so it deserves a review, but I'm not thrilled, so I'm low on motivation to organize my thoughts.

Let me just start with what I liked: 

I liked the way it came together.  I remember really enjoying the process of putting the bodice together.  It's lined, so it feels substantial even with my flimsy, cheap rayon from Hancock Fabrics.  I think this fabric turned out to be the perfect weight and drape for this dress actually.  Anything thicker might have been too bulky.

I like the gathering at the front neckline.

I like the IDEA of the sleeves.

I like the IDEA of the tulip skirt.

That's about it.

Now, on to my complaints:

The armpit area is too low and too open.  I'm not opposed to making this again and fixing that.  I also think it would have been fine in the long-sleeved version.

That cute little cap sleeve was sitting way too high for me at first.  Imagine the sleeve ending a good two inches higher on my arm than it does in this picture below.  Basically, I was feeling weirdly exposed with the armpit being low and the sleeve being high.  

 I totally redid the pleat placement on both sleeves and probably won't mess with this cap sleeved version again because of that.
(side note:  I am just now realizing that my camera wasn't really thrilled with my dress either, as it decided to focus on my front door and not me.  Apparently, I still have some figuring out of the-ways-of-the-remote-shutter-release to do.) 

The middle section is a tad too thick for my proportions.  If I made it again, I'd shorten it by an inch.

As I mentioned, I like the shape of the skirt in theory, but I don't think it does my booty any favors.  I'm hippy enough without anything accentuating that.  I doubt I'll ever wear this dress because of that fact alone.

Lastly, even though I really love the gathering of the bodice in the front, I'm not sure what I would need to do next time to get it to fit properly in the back.  When I first tried the finished product on, it was like the neck was just plain too big.  If I situated the dress to where everything looked good in the front, the back of the neckline and the slit sagged and gaped horribly.  I ended up unpicking the slit and re-sewing it as a "v" shape so that the tie ends started farther apart and, when tied, were more snug.

It still gapes and pulls funny.

arg.

I bought this fabric a long time ago and, while I think the weight and drape are perfect for this dress, I don't really love the color and design of it any more.

Maybe I'll grow to appreciated it more after we have some time apart, but for now, I'm just feeling kinda meh.