Fresh as a daisy

Dear readers, before we start the double bill this weekend, do you like the new look of my blog? It's coming up to a year now since the birth of this baby, so I thought it was time to give it a simpler and fresher look. 

Anyhow, I was too excited to have finished my second version of Simplicity 2444, and just couldn't wait to share it with you. 

I think I will gladly add this to my mini-moon wardrobe, and I just hope that the weather will be nice and hot in Paris!

I just love how summery it looks - the fabric was a polyester that I bought from my Prague trip. Now I don't usually go for manmade materials other than viscose, but I fell in love with this daisy print and gladly paid about £10 a metre for it. 

What's more, this dress gave me a chance to wear those yellow shoes that I've had for a while ;)

I made a few adjustments to the pattern based on my wearable toile: 

• I cut a size 4 this time, and graded to a 6 at the waistline (as the waist was tight enough last time!)
• I made a small bust adjustment ("SBA"), having finally come to terms with the fact that I do, in fact, need to do this for most patterns... I think usually commercial patterns "cater for" a B cup, with a number of exceptions (eg Colette patterns have a C cup). I followed the very helpful tutorial here, which oddly meant that I ended up with a bodice pattern with only one set of darts rather than 2! But it did fit me much better. 
• I omitted the centre front seam of the skirt, and cut it on fold instead. To ensure that the side seams still align, I took the seam allowances off at the sides and it worked fine. 
• I took 15cm off the skirt length this time, and was happy with the length. 
• I did the neckline facing, but unfortunately the fabric was rather sheer so it showed through! It bothered me no end so I unpicked it all... and finished the neckline with a self-fabric bias tape instead. 

          This is what it looked like with the facing... ewww 

              I used the tutorial here to finish the neckline. Here're a couple of in-progress photos:

 
And that's it, my second version of the great Simplicity 2444. I love this pattern, especially now I have managed to get it to fit. I can't wait to make it again!