There will be pictures soon, I swear.

I look better in the dress than the counter does. 

Ok, so I finished the dress and it looks excellent. WOO HOO! In fact, I spent today wearing it and it was comfortable and easy to wear. I've never had a dress that fit that well, and I basically spent the afternoon running around my apartment saying "I totally made this whole thing all by myself!" over and over again like a little girl.

So yeah, pictures soon. Until then, I should list the order in which I'll assemble the next dress because I need to improve on that this time around. Fitting was way more complicated than it needed to be. That will change if I:

1. Assemble base dress, straps, lining, petticoat. Do not attach these to each other yet! Let them all hang overnight so fabric settles.

Materials, I haz them.

2. Attach in lining to bodice, but sew along the top edge only.
3. Attach zipper and correct the fit.
4. Make a ton of bias strips. Actually sew all of them into single-color rolls because it sucks to do that as they get attached to the dress.
5. Attach bias strips to dress. Keep the lining flipped up so it doesn't get sewn down yet. Wait to attach the strip at the waist until last step.
6. Finish the top edge and hem dress by folding bias strips along the edge.
7. Attach straps.
8. Sew zipper side of lining and attach petticoat/lining at the waist. Maybe put the seam at the back and keep the top part slightly open to make putting it on easier?
9. Post celebratory photos and prepare for "where did you get that dress?" conversations with strangers.

Now the fun part... what colors should I do next? I'm thinking a black base dress with strips in different shades of pink and maybe a few black and white houndstooth strips in there too. I already have the hot pink organza for the petticoat, so that's definitely part of the color scheme somehow. GAAAH this is so exciting!

Like this, but less humiliating.