Simplicity 2996

Well, after approximately 6453 miles of handsewing, I finished my Easter dress! I'm still not sure I'm completely in love, but there are some seriously great details in this dress. I really appreciated everyone's comments about styling this dress. Hopefully you can see where I have incorporated them. You all had some wonderful thoughts.

The pattern is Simplicity 2996, alas now OOP. It is a princess seamed shirtdress and includes cup sized pattern pieces - love that! The fabric is a poly rayon linen look from Hancock's. I used Pro-Weft interfacing on the facings and collar and Pro-Sheer Elegance on the hem.

I used the clean finish technique from Pam's blog for the facings, and the just look gorgeous. The edge is soft and smooth. Seam finishes were otherwise serged. I thought about lining this dress, but I really wanted it to be a breezy, summer-y dress, so I left it unlined.

Here is the sleeve detail. Isn't the little tab cute? The sleeve is faced rather than hemmed and the tab is caught in the facing.

After all of your great comments about styling this dress, I wanted an understated, but still pretty button that would fit into the vintage feel. I went withe these floral ones, since I felt they were versatile, but still sweet.

Here is the pocket. I'm not sure why it is so dark in this photo. The color in the other pictures is more true to life. Anyway, the pocket is inserted into the front princess seam. The welt is stitched down on the sides rather than inserted like a true welt pocket. I stitched it down by hand, as I didn't want there to be any topstitching on the dress. I really wanted to preserve the clean lines.

I really loved all of your ideas for dressing up this dress, particularly the suggestions for a contrasting belt or scarf. I think red will be great with it, but I was taken with Uta's idea of pairing it with brown, so here it is with a chunky brown and blue necklace and a brown belt. What do you think?