When I made my first version of the pattern I left it short because I ran out of fabric. I knew I wanted a second one both to try out the full length and to see if I could get the bodice to sit perfectly. My changes were hard to track in terms of how long the straps should be, and the direction of force on them.
I noticed that the bust darts were way (2") below my bust, and in fact if I pulled the entire bodice up by 2" it sat better under my arms too.
The armscye bias binding made a kind of 90 degree turn where it hit the top edge of the bodice front, going out over the shoulders.
I could lower the back a tiny bit more.
The pockets are great but could be higher - I used the bardon dress pockets (Elbe Textiles) and they are MASSIVE - hah, almost as long as the first dress.
With these thoughts in mind and actually much deep reflection, I decided this needed to be the first dress this year because I had been thinking about it so long. I bought the fabric last year, it's Liberty Poplin, and because I actually bought it for this project, I did buy enough. I used the same bias for the front neck, over the shoulders, and the back. I did shorter bias strips under the armscye. That meant I had to keep a centre back seam. I took about 1" off the width, raised the darts 1" and just removed a smidge more off the back while adding about 1" to the armpit coverage. I decided not to shorten the straps to raise the front to where it probably should be, because the location of the front neckline suits me and I didn't want to change too much at once. I used the Bardon pockets but put them higher.
The bodice seems long, but it should be standard length, maybe the weight of the dress pulls it longer.
This feels like a lot more dress compared to my first version, but that's always the problem with multiple versions of a thing. They won't be the same, nor should they be! Since spring is now flowering I will hopefully start to wear this and we will see if I love it as much as I loved my very short version 1.
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