Franken-Dress (and earthquake update)

Sorry I haven't posted in a week. Things have been a bit crazy around here since the earthquake. Thanks for all your sweet comments on my last post. We have continued experiencing aftershocks for the last week and they may well go on for the next couple of months. The damage to my house is worse than we originally thought but we got both the hot and cold water restored yesterday which was nice. The novelty of being able to turn on the taps, flush the toilet without a bucket of water etc, has still not worn off. I'm so incredibly lucky though. Many people, including some I know, have lost their whole homes or their businesses.
I don't want this post to be all gloomy so I thought I'd show you a dress I finished a couple of weeks ago. It was originally meant to be a wiggle dress, using the bodice of Simplicity 1192 but after I had cut out the skirt I realised the fabric had a big hole in it. The floral fabric, which I bought at Stash Rehash, had quite a few holes in it but I thought I had made sure to avoid them when I was cutting out. Obviously I hadn't. The bodice was fine so I decided to try and find some fabric that went with it to make the skirt out of. I spent ages trying to find a similar blue to the flowers but I had to make do with a sort of turquoise colour. It's not perfect but it's alright. The skirt is just a couple of rectangles with some pleats in it. I like that it kind of gives it an early 60s feeling.
The sash is made from a piece of left-over fabric and just ties around my waist.
While the dress itself is quite simple it took me months to finish because I couldn't find the motivation after so many hiccups. I finally had to impose a rule that I couldn't start sewing anything else until I finished it. This actually worked and I got it done if only so I could sew other things.
It's not my favourite dress but I probably will end up wearing it a bit because it is simple and comfortable.

Simplicity 1192

When I first contemplated sewing Simplicity 1192 I thought it looked fairly straightforward and fun...how wrong I was. The bodice went together perfectly until it came time to attach the ties for the bows. When I tried it on the bateau neckline was so high up my neck it looked like a skivvy* gone wrong. Since I (mostly) followed the instructions I'm going to tell myself that women in the 1950s had ridiculously swan-like necks and that is why the neckline came up to my chin. After a few small tantrums and a lot of unpicking I decided to remove the ties. I was determined to still use them somehow because they were bias cut and it had used up about a metre of fabric making them. I tried various methods of attaching them at the shoulder seams and sewing them to the facings but none looked quite right.

I finished the rest of the dress, including my first lapped zipper (which was easy compared to fixing the neckline). I decided that it would be easier if the ties were removable so I could wear a cardigan over the dress. In the photo above I've just tied them around the shoulder seams and then into bows. They look really uneven but that's mostly because I was in a hurry and couldn't be bothered playing with them until they were the same. Sorry about the wonky photo, that's what happens when you try and take a self-timer photo using a sloping bookcase as a makeshift tripod.

*Turtleneck if you're not a New Zealander