After an extremely lazy morning yesterday, I got started on my latest: the city toile dress.  This was a dress I had in the works for a while, in varying stages.  I picked the fabric a long time ago, another one from Rifle Paper Co that I coveted for a long time before finally buying.

Fabric in hand, I originally planned to make the same shirt dress as my flamingo dress, but I ended up finding another pattern I wanted to try.

The pattern I found while browsing Instagram I think.  I can’t remember exactly where I saw it but it was something a fellow seamstress was working on, and I immediately liked the pattern.  View D was exactly what I wanted to do with the City Toile.

I got the cutting out of the way last week, when I had another cutting day trying to make my way through a bunch of projects.  One of these days, I need to come up with a better organization system for my works in progress – like a big calendar or bulletin board or something that can move pieces as projects are in varying stages (my three main stages are cutting, constructing and finishing… but I’m getting off on a tangent).

With cutting done, I spent some time today ironing on the interfacing and transferring the pattern markings.

It was then time to begin the bodice construction.  This one went together a little bit differently than most bodices I put together but it was simply enough.  I had a few problems with the collar, and it’s visibly a little wonky, but I think I know how to fix it next time I make up this dress (which is going to be quite soon, actually as I have another fabric I want to use with it).

There was a lot of handsewing that needed to be done for the bodice.  Generally I saw that for the end but this pattern needed it done before moving on to the next step.  The buttonhole and collar facings needed to be slip stitched.

The midriff of the dress was next.  I liked that this pattern had a solid waistband.  I quickly attached it and the facing to the bodice, despite some confusion about the markings and where to gather.

And voila!  The bodice:

Next steps are to add the sleeves and get moving on the skirt.  I also need to buy a zipper.  In notorious me fashion, I just forged ahead without reading that I needed a zipper.  This doesn’t affect my construction but it will delay finishing if I don’t get one… I really should invest in a giant assorted bag of them.

So far my advice for this pattern would be: don’t skimp on your markings!  As a seasoned sewer, sometimes I don’t always mark my fabric fully but I think I really would’ve regretted not doing it with this pattern.  However, all in all, it’s coming together very smoothly so far.