The Black Rayon Challis Print -- Remade!

I couldn't take it.  I just couldn't take it.  I couldn't allow my pretty black rayon challis remain a wadder.  Not even for one. more. day.

First thing:  I cut the skirt off the Butterick 5181 Epic Fail Dress and just made it into a regular elastic waist skirt.  That was pretty easy and basic, and I've noticed in the past that rayon challis elastic waist skirts look pretty good on me.  They don't get too full because of the drapey-ness of the rayon, and I like the way they swish.

Then:  I used the couple of pieces of fabric left over from the Butterick dress to cut the top.  The pattern I used is the very first pattern I drafted for myself, way back in 1997.  It's still my best fitting shirt pattern ever.  Probably because I spent an entire winter perfecting it. 

The result:  An outfit I'm mostly happy with.

I like the v-neck.  I like it sleeveless.  I like the virtually invisible snaps for the front closure.  What I don't like is the mistakes I made.  I'll get over them, though, since they're mostly the kind of mistakes nobody else would notice.

What really bugs me is that I neglected to take into account that the pattern was drafted for cotton, not rayon.  Which means that the darts are not quite where they should be due to the nature of the fabric.  But since it's not that visible, I don't think I want to run the risk of ripping a hole in the fabric to take them out and re-sew them.  You know how delicate rayon can be.

On a whim, I decided to sew the top with all Hong Kong finishes -- in some pink floral binding that I cut a while back for some project that I no longer remember.  So the inside is a little interesting with all that pink.  Some of it peeks out on the right side, too, but it's more interesting than distracting and I don't think it looks bad.


All in all, I think it's a successful save.  Not perfect, mind you, but good enough to make me happy.