Butterick 5747, or the "Princess Leia dress"

Remember this dress?

I think I started it over a month ago, but I kept screwing it up and losing motivation. I finally finished it!  I borrowed heavily from the pattern envelope for my fabric choices, and I used a rayon crepe from Trimfabrics.com.  It was really hard to find the light brown fabric for the waistband.  I originally wanted real suede, but it was really expensive.  Ultrasuede looked super cheap to me, so this sat for a good long time until I found some plain brown rayon at Hancock fabrics.

The crepe was a little sheer, so I did French seams throughout.  I kept screwing up and sewing them backwards, but in the end it turned out really great so I'm glad I put in the extra effort.  It looks neater and more "finished".

The back isn't perfect, but oh well. I used an invisible zipper for the first time in ages, and I had a little trouble getting it in. The back waistband doesn't match up exactly perfectly, but pretty close. The top of the zipper looks kind of bad and I will eventually have to fix it. For now, my hair covers it so I can wear it a few times until I muster up the desire to fix it.

I wore it to work last week!  Mike kept calling me Princess Leia.  I felt cute in it though and I think it'll become a regular work dress.

I'm impressed with myself for the fact that I 1) made real sleeves 2) they are long enough 3) I can lift my arms. 

I just have to try to get my hair as tall as the model's!