New Look 6097 Wrap Dress with Full Skirt

Here we have a middle-of-the-road outcome: I like it, I'll wear it plenty but I'm not delighted with it.

I thought it might be good to revisit New Look 6097, and make some of the fitting changes from the first go-round to the pattern tissue. I reduced the side seams to the size 10 and shortened the bodice 1 1/4" (thereby eliminating the fourth of four pleats on the right front bodice piece).  I took a tuck in the each side of the neckline to reduce its length by 1/2", and I shortened the binding piece considerably. The collar width was reduced by 3/4". For a change from the first version, I used a fuller skirt from another knit wrap dress, Butterick 4788, now out of print.

After making those changes to the pattern, I thought I'd be good to sew and go, but it didn't work out that way. The bodice was still 5/8" too long and the sides still required a lot of taking in at various points, including at the underarm area and the lower edge of the sleeve. If I make this bodice again, I think I will reduce the length above the bust by at least 1/2".

That extra fabric below the pleats and above the waist is making me crazy. Might have to do something about that.

Lesson, learned over and over again: patterns that start at size 10 are too big for me in the chest, and it is a lot of work to adjust them.

On the positive side, the collar and binding method used in this pattern give a very nice result. The binding is folded in half, right sides together, and the raw edge is sewn to the right side of the neck line. Then the binding is turned completely to the inside and topstitched in place. Maybe this is what is called a French binding. I think so.

Another positive: I'm pleased with the back.

So there we have it: a black knit dress, very comfortable, can be worn many ways. Yawn.