Homemade Friday: Vogue 2902, or the dress I probably shouldn't wear in public

I started sewing this dress pattern many, many years ago, like even before I had Sebastian.

She wanted to be in the photo, too.*

I'm a vintage-dress girl. Part of me really wishes I could wear them every day, and not look weird. Because if you wear dresses and there isn't a good occasion for it, people tend to wonder why.

Why? Because I like dresses, that's why.

So when I saw this pattern, I immediately loved it. Capital L Loved it.

It was entirely beyond my skill level at the time, and probably still beyond me. I didn't sew nearly as much as I do now, but was eager to learn. This dress was not the pattern to learn on, I think. It is fiddly, with zippers and linings and all the pieces.  That is why, after finishing about half of the bodice I threw up my hands, said Screw. It. and shoved all the pieces and pattern into a grocery bag.

It has been bouncing around from closet to closet ever since, until this past summer.

I'm not sure what made me what to pick it back up. Probably a desperate need for quiet and sewing therapy. When I worked on something so detailed I could block out all of the sibling insanity that was happening all around.

I fee like I am a better sewist now (that's what we're supposed to call ourselves, right?) Zippers still aren't my friend, but I can at leas sew a straight seam.

But as soon as I started sewing the dress again I knew that the finished product was not going to be pretty. It's too tight, the bodice seams are crooked and I had used a pencil to transfer pattern markings, and they do not come out.

And the skirt. Oh goodness the skirt. I do not know how to hem a circle skirt, especially not one as huge as this one. It's a good 3-4 inches longer on one side than it is on the other, and the lining is the same way.  I have no idea how that happened.

And the zipper. And the lining by the zipper.

And did I mention it's too tight?

But, even given all of that - I love it. And I want to wear it. I probably won't, at least not until the skirt is fixed. But oh, do I ever want to.

The fabric flows and the giant, misshapen skirt makes me want to twirl.

I want to try again. I want to sew another one - this time maybe without the lining. And with a youtube tutorial on how to hem a humongous circle skirt.

You couldn't see my shoes well enough in the picture to tell how cute they are!

*I had literally two minutes to throw this dress on and force my husband to take these photos so that's why you have the no-makeup-exhausted-mama-messy-topknot photos. You are most certainly welcome.