Watermelon Halter Dress - First Wearable (In Public) Garment!! : Part 2 and Reveal!

My last post shared my experience in sewing the dress from this sewing pattern:

I really liked this pattern, and it had a lot of firsts for me, but what I don't like so much is that because it only went so big on the bust (I pieced together the biggest size pattern pieces for the bodice, and small size for the skirt), the cup pieces aren't quite big enough to cover me, and so, don't drape as well as they should. With proper fitting bodice pieces, the waist/skirt would fit better I'm sure (since it would actually start where it's supposed to, under my bust, not still on top of it as it is in this version), and would give me better definition overall. This is a pattern/bust adjustment that I'd have to be able to do and don't know how yet, so that will just have to be something I learn later!

Awkward pose from the side to show you a little of what I'm talking about:

The pattern itself wasn't too difficult to read, I just had difficulties with new-to-me concepts (the peak on the bodice pieces lol is the main part I had trouble with).

If you are familiar with zippers, it's easy enough to sew into the dress. The only part I had trouble with, and I don't believe I did well with, was the top part where you're supposed to sort of fold down the top fabric to cover the top part of the zipper, shown below in last step: 

The hook-eyes are a hand-stitch item and I'm not thrilled with doing that part, but I also am just more paranoid that my stitching won't be good enough and will burst my top open. This is mostly only because of the size/weight of my bust area, that it's just a constant concern for me.

Speaking of the bust area....

The part in front, the neckline, was a little low, but it was manageable. This picture is just me trying to show where the pieces come together in front, where the pattern pieces actually line up, which is cool! What it harder to tell however is that I wasn't able to stitch them together fantastically, so the stitching is pulling a little at having to keep together! Hahaha

In fact, here's the instructions for this particular part, joining the two bodice pieces. Just tacking them together, then attaching bodice top to bodice bottom pieces, went ok. It stayed stitched together at least and didn't burst open on me, but I think it's because I went over and over that stitch line a few times, just in case!! Also, even if this stitching had come apart, it would have been a little awkward, but not so much since the top and bottom pieces would still have been stitched together well enough to keep the whole dress top up and on.

And here is the backside. It's not horrible, not so low that my bra would be showing too much, but as you can see, there is still an issue of my bra being a bit visible. I'm not sure if you can see this either, but if you look far left of the below picture, you can somewhat see the fabric bunching. See it? Know what that is? I had to use a safety pin to tighten up the sides so that there wasn't a big gap that left the dress super hanging in the back!! Even still, I was having to pull up the back of the dress fairly often to ensure my bra strap wasn't still showing.

Maybe some day I'll figure out how to take in sides/adjust a pattern so it doesn't do that... That's sort of the same thing though as learning how to do a bust adjustment.

In the meantime, the best I could think of to ensure that the bra strap wouldn't be visible would be to perhaps sew some sort of "belt loops" on the inside, back, of the dress. They would need to be wide enough so that I could put the bra straps through them, and that should theoretically help hold it up? That would also make it so I don't need the safety pins (or have to adjust pattern too much) and would then also not make the dress bodice so tight around my bust, worrying me about pulling at stitches too much.

Remember how I mentioned this dress has pockets....??

Yeah! Showing off my pockets. I'm SO happy this dress has pockets!!

These pictures may look weird, but what I'm trying to demonstrate is the tiny bit of gathering done under each bust side. I definitely did better on one side than the other, but they look similar enough, it's no big deal. Plus in normal interactions, it's probably really hard to see these details ;)

Now for the final reveal!!

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Here is my full, wearable dress, with a circle skirt, pockets, and halter-top!!

Of course, you can't show off a circle skirt without spinning!!!

P.S. - I also got some tulle...

And I'm hoping at some point to use the tutorial from Sugardale Clothing's blog here to make a petticoat (shown below) to wear under the dress using the above tulle.

There you have it, folks! I have made my first, wearable (in public..since hubby tells me I can't wear my pj pants in public lol), piece of clothing!!!

What do you think? If there's still something I'm missing, or if you have any advice for next time to help make it easier for me, please share!!

I wore the dress once for a Toastmasters contest in March 2016, but I'm debating wearing this dress again since it's a little more revealing that I'd like, and the whole problem with the poor fit due to the bust pieces being too small, make it not that flattering.

If I do get a chance to make the petticoat though, I will share with you, so keep an eye out for that!!

Until then, craft ya laters!!