8813 My Sad French Tilton Tablecloth Maid Dress. I read the directions. All but one.

In plaid. 

Because I have seven yards of beautiful cotton woven plaid shirting fabric from District Fabric's brick and mortar store, at their closing. THE ONLINE STORE IS OPEN.
 Ashley moved, she didn't go out of business.

http://districtfabric.com/espresso-plaid-shirting/

This pattern has been on the top of the pile for a long time. And Pao's creations have made me hungry to try it out.
She has links to them all in this post
http://projectminima.blogspot.com/2018/05/wearing-that-french-housedress.html

But I have issues. So many issues.

Yes, I understand that gathering the central panel before you sew it to its adjoining pieces is the way to go. But the finished neckline looks so wonky in so many versions of this dress, even assembled on it's own. The neckline seam is on a faint curve, folded on itself as it's own binding, and then folded over at the back neckline, as it's own facing.
One of these actions is successful, but not both. The back neck seam is a lot of folded fabric and thread mounted on a single layer of fabric,and SPOILERS: it cuts into the back of my neck. The front V neck is often warped and wobbly.

I raised the opening an inch and change, per reviews that it was too low. I did measure the entire neck opening, because Big Head.

Yes, I unpicked that horizontal gathering seam; it's off grain. 

It looked worse when I gathered it. 

Redone, regathered, and reinforced with fusible bias tape on the wrong side. Thank you Professional Sewing Services, for selling this at SewExpo.

And I sewed bias tape over the front side, because it was still an ugly seam on the right side.

Hrmmm.

This is one place where rick rack would be a good choice. It needs a distraction, because it's at this point where this project becomes a race to scrape it from the recycle bin.

However, I cut it out and did a great job matching plaids across and around the piece. So in for a penny.....

I started assembling the pieces and realized I had mis-altered the pattern and plaids weren't going to line up the way I had thought.

It was going to be perfect. 

The pocket goes in very nicely. Just make sure you notch the seam notches and use them.

The seam to match the sides to the pocket panel got folded in. I'm unclear how this happened, but I resized and made mistakes with seam allowances.

Nevertheless, she unpicked

And I just topstitched them in place. At this point, I just want to finish this.

Those front pockets are lethally large.

Without the center panel, you can see the depth of the droop of the pocket on the right. The pocket lining is almost level with the floor. Gravity will suck things out. 
Bad Pocket.

This is WITH the pockets taken in 7" at their top edge. EACH.

My results:
I made a schmatta here.

There are things I like about this dress. the cut on sleeves and the vertical style lines the front panel creates. Even as a hot mess, it does look like the pattern illustration. It's got some serious decorative handwork possibilities on that inset/gathered section.
I have taken all my alteration issues and gathered them into a second post, because this one is really long and doesn't end with a happy ending of me frolicking in the dress. 
Eventually, I will either pull the central panel out and replace it with NOT PLAID, or I will just scrap this entirely. There are too many points where I didn't get the effect I wanted and what I got is distracting. 
The best way to get the illustration is to make this in a thin and droopy knit. That's the direction I did not follow. You need the knit for the drape, not for the stretch. You'll use a straight stitch and it will be great.

I honestly thought I had a photo of me in the dress, but I don't and the idea of going to get dressed in it and taking a photo makes me sad and I want to get this done. I want to stop writing about it and move on. 
I will put a photo up, just not right now.
Consider this a place holder.

That's me and baby seam ripper. Art on right by Ken Taya @enfu