My First Pattern

 I've been hesitant to buy patterns thinking that they will be too complicated and confusing but I actually found this one to be fairly straightforward.  When I first opened up the package and looked at the instructions I was a bit worried, especially since I didn't know all of the terms, but once I took the time to go through them slowly and was actually working with the fabric I found it to be pretty easy.  The hardest part was cutting out the fabric, since no matter how many times I looked at it I could not figure out how the diagram of how to place the pattern pieces on the fabric was supposed to work.  So I just cut out the pattern pieces and fit them on the fabric in my own way which worked just fine.

The pattern for this dress was unlined but I decided to do a lining since the gray fabric is fairly thin.  I spent a lot of time looking at dresses I had bought that were lined to figure out how it should work.  In the end it was really helpful to do a lining because a) it was sort of a test run before cutting the outer fabric to make sure all of the pieces were big enough and b) I didn't have to hem or make a different neck interfacing piece.

The hardest part of the dress (besides the cutting) ended up being the zipper.  The way I learned how to attach zippers is incredibly easy but I didn't realize until I was at the point of attaching it that I had already sewn up too much of the back.  I ended up having to undo that sewing and then put the zipper in the way I know how, which took a lot of time but was worth it.

I wore this dress to work last week and it was great--very classic and simple but easy to accessorize and the fabric is versatile enough that I'll be able to wear it almost year round!