KTB - New Look 6429 Mock-wrap Dress

Project - New Look 6429 view D. Knit dress with mock wrap detail.
Started - Who knows? Probably about 4 years ago.
Finished - 28 December 2014

This dress has been sitting in the sewing cupboard for years. It needed the hem to be unpicked, reshaped and resewn, dangling threads removed and floppy facings fixed.

The fabric is a really stretchy jersey knit I picked up on special but is really too stretchy to hold the shape of the dress well. A firmer knit would hold the design lines much more effectively. The fabric pattern was difficult to match and you can see that it is printed off-grain, so the front panel looks like it is hanging skewed.

I remember that I got most of the dress put together in a day or two but wasn't happy with the fit so shelved it.
I remember pulling it out again and adjusting the wrap front and sewing the hem, only to put it on and be dismayed to find the back hem had a big dip at the centre back and the skirt was too clingy and revealing over my stomach and hips. I stashed it away to deal with later.

This week, seeing as the sewing machines were out, the room was tidy and I was on a bit of a roll, I decided to pull it out and finish it off once and for all.

I figured out that the droopy hem was because I had lengthened the back bodice but forgotten to remove the same amount of length from the back skirt. Over-locking before folding up a hem wasn't the greatest idea on this fabric either. I unpicked the zig-zag hem, lay it out flat and trimmed the entire hem using the rotary cutter. I pinned them hem up, pressed well and then stitched in place with a twin needle.

The facings didn't sit well (an issue with everyone who has reviewed this pattern) so I trimmed them back to the edge of the top-stitching, creating more of a bound edge.

All in all, the dress isn't a disaster. it is light and comfortable to wear, so may become a round-the-house dress.

I don't like the cling across my stomach but that is more about accepting my body shape than a design fault with the pattern.

I love the back - the v-shaped waist line sits perfectly. I'm wondering if I can combine the back design with a more fitted front bodice?