This dress was one of the first dresses I ever made. Probably in the first five. I made it back in March 2014. It is the Coco pattern by Tilly and the Buttons. It’s blogged over on the old version of my blog, before I switched over to WordPress. This dress is super comfortable, and definitely falls into the “secret pajama” category.  When I wore it last week and told that to my friend, she said, “houndstooth pajamas?!?” It’s true.

I wear this dress all the time, but am always a little self-conscious about the fit. It is designed to be a  loose-fitting 60’s style dress. Loose-fitting dresses aren’t really my thing, though. I tried to combat this by slimming the flare on the skirt when I made it, but that didn’t completely do the trick.

Before:

This week I decided to do a little more work and tweaked the fit again. I added two two-headed darts to the back, in an effort to eliminate the pooling at the lower back and slim the fit through the sides. I was home alone when I did this, so I put in pins on my own where I thought the darts should go and then did my best to take the dress off without 1) the pins stabbing me, or 2) the pins coming out of place. It mostly worked. There were enough pins left in the dress (and not in my back) that I had a general idea of where to place the darts and how deep to make them. It didn’t work out perfectly, though, and the darts aren’t completely even. I don’t think it’s too obvious, and I’ve forgotten about that little mistake when I wear it. I can’t see my back after all.

This little tweak only took about 10 minutes, and really makes the dress more my style. I’m going to start thinking of ways to make my other existing clothes suit me better, in fit and style. The best part is, it was free!