Finished: The Most Tedious Dress on the Planet

Today when I got home from work I decided that this was it, I was going to finish the Urban Safari dress tonight, no more farting around. Fortunately all the little fiddly things didn't take me too long. Seriously, this dress was even more tedious than that Vogue dress with the 12 gore skirt I made. And that took 3 spools of thread!! Here is the finished dress:


I realized that I didn't have a brown belt, so I sewed one from a leftover strip of fabric from the dress, plus I had a couple of D-rings to use as a buckle. Here are some of the buttons, I used a mottled grey and tan:


The belt loops are buttoned, too. I changed the back from two loops to one, mainly because I preferred the way that it looked with the loop lined up with the center back seam, and also because my topstitching on those little flaps was abyssmal. I don't know why I don't have better control, but it looked like a one-eyed drunk had made those. So, I picked the best three, and then left the flaps off the shoulders:


One nice touch is that the collar is made without a facing. The collar stand is attached to the outside of the dress, then the inside is folded under and hand stitched, hiding all the raw edges of the fabric:

One of the reasons that this dress took so darn long is that there is topstitching EVERYWHERE. That also makes it more of a challenge to match up the seams, since you have to match both the seams and the topstitching:


There are also little flaps/welts on the outside of the pockets. Topstitched, of course:



Overall, I am quite happy with the way the dress turned out. The cotton twill is not stiff, and hangs nicely. The only thing that I am concerned about is the lack of color. I tend to wear brights or black, so this is a bit of a departure for me. We'll see if I can adapt! I plan on wearing it tomorrow.

Updated to add, photo of finished dress, ready for work:


I feel like I need a hat.