Françoise Mark I

I made something!  Life has been really hectic around here lately and I feel like I haven't finished anything for ages but I managed to squeeze a dress in.  The pattern is the newly released Françoise from Tilly which I bought at soon as it went on sale.  I didn't think I would be making it this side of Christmas but temptation won!

In my head I have the perfect vision of how I want a Françoise to look, and I even have the fabric sitting in my cupboard waiting for something perfect such as this pattern to come along.  However, for my first attempt I wanted to see what the general fit was like, and being very time poor at the moment I didn't want to make a non-wearable muslin.  So I hunted in my stash and found this cheap polyester ponte roma with great big hummingbirds flying around on it.

There are so many issues with this fabric I am not sure where to start.  Firstly, the stretch runs perpendicular to the pattern so this fabric is completely unsuitable for a Lady Skater which is what it was originally bought for.  Secondly it is printed and is white on the inside, but is also quite see-through so will probably need a slip underneath.  Thirdly, I didn't have quite enough to make this dress so there is a pieced triangle on the back bottom hem.

Lastly, and most importantly, because of the size of the print I had to omit the waist darts on the front and back.  So really not much of a good test garment then!  Next time I will make a muslin, and definitely before I cut into the perfect stash fabric!  As usual for Tilly's patterns, this was a delight to sew.  Everything went together extremely well and the instructions were perfect.  I made a size 4 and the only alteration I made (except for omitting most of the darts!) was to lower the bust darts.

What I do like about this version is the fit on most of it, and the pattern matched zip!  I think I could do with taking some width out of the upper back but other than that it looks okay.  For my next version I was intending to try my first FBA but looking at these pictures I am not sure it is needed.  Any thoughts?  Overall I am happy with this dress.  I am wearing it out to dinner tonight so it will get a full outing then.  

My father-in-law was kind enough to take these photos, and most of them are great, but I have no idea what he was hoping to achieve with this one!!