Riviera dress progress

I start my course next week, so have been busy preparing for that. I have found time to inch a little further forward on my Riviera dress, though, adding the zip and neck facing. I did the zip first because the neckline felt a tiny bit baggy at the back (a common problem for me), so I took the back seam in slightly at the top. Once I was happy with the fit, I attached the facing and trimmed off the excess.

The dress on Nancy

In theory, that should be the dress almost finished, with only the hem and understitching the facing left to do. But when I tried it on, I wasn't convinced.

Please excuse the atrocious mirror shot

A quick glance at the Vintage and Contemporary gallery pages of this blog will show that I don't shy away from bold prints, but overall this one just feels too busy. Possibly it's the lack of a belt - there's no plain contrast area to give the eye a moment to rest. Then I remembered this pattern in my collection, from three years earlier.

Butterick 8131, 1957

It has a similar bodice with grown-on sleeves, and I really like the neckline treatments of views B and C. Time to experiment with something similar.