This is my second new dress for me this year. I still have not had an opportunity to wear the first one. It just has not been warm enough. (I’m working on a sweater to wear with it though.) But this one I’m going to wear this week!

I did the muslin for this dress way back when. I swear it takes me forever to do a project start to finish. That muslin was almost 4 months ago! But I was trying to figure out what fabric to use when I came across this Alexander Henry Dagmar Plaid in a log cabin banner that Susan Beal had made and brought with her to the book signing she did at the Bobbin’s Nest a few weeks ago. That pretty much was that.

I had to do a few alterations to this, of course. First up was my usual shortening of the waist, this time 1.5 inches. And you can see in the pictures I posted of the muslin that I did an alteration to lower the neckline so it wasn’t choking me. That turned out really well!

I also did not interface the pockets. Well, technically I did. But when I realized how ridiculously stiff two layers of fabric and two layers of interfacing was going to be, and how it would make the dress all weirdly stiff in the front, I ripped out all the fusible interfacing and I think they are now perfect! You might not be able to see them, since they blend in really well. They are patch pockets, right about where my hands are in the first photo.

That’s my mom’s vintage pin. I love it on this dress, but the enamel is chipping off in one spot. Anyone know where I could get that repaired??

I also opted for an invisible zipper on this dress, and I’m now kicking myself for not doing that on the other dress as well. I think it looks really really nice here and is worth doing. The sleeves and bottom hems are all machine blind hemmed, which I almost never do, but this fabric, while light, is also very busy, so you really can’t see it at all.

And that’s my husband being the fashion photographer. With my new dress and new haircut, I would say I don’t look a day over 39!