Floral bombshell dress

I made the Butterick Gertie princess seam dress B6453! This dress makes me feel like a pinup bombshell and I really love it. I can dress it up with some heels and fancy hair, or slightly dressed down with a jean jacket and sandals. But either way I definitely feel pretty.

The pattern is B6453, which is as mentioned is a dress with a close fitting princess seam top and I made the pencil skirt bottom. The result ended up being good but it took a little while to get here. I had trouble finding the right fit and I think it is partially because I should have done a small bust adjustment/read the final garment measurements better, and partially because the fabric stretched out more than I thought it would.

Changes I made:

- Only made a one-part strap because I didn't have the little slidey hardware and didn't want to go to the store.

- After putting it all together I realised there was more room around the waist than I wanted so I added two pleats (darts?) to the place where the princess seams meet the skirt, which I think turned out looking really good and intentional and fixed some of the fitting problems

- The biggest issue I had was fitting the back - I had to take nearly four inches out of the centre back! Which was very difficult with the lapped zipper. Lots of adjustments but again, I kept at it until it worked!

I have close up shots of the dress on my dress form at the bottom where you can see these things better.

The fabric is a flowy lightweight cotton with a navy and pink/red floral print. I love the opacity but lightweightness of the fabric but it did seem to stretch out a lot around the neck and waist. Really should have stay stitched!