The first problem I had with the fit was that the dress was entirely too large. According to the measurements on the envelope I should fit perfectly into a size 12. When I tried the dress on before I put the zipper in, there was way too much extra room. The dress should have been made one whole size smaller than the envelope recommends.
The next problem I had with the fit was the width of the shoulders. My shoulders are not real wide so the original dress stuck out way past the end of my clavicle. To fix this I cut away one inch of fabric from the shoulder seam and blended the rest with arm opening. Even if your shoulders are quite wide you may want to consider doing this. After you have cut away the extra fabric be sure to check the length of the armhole facing to make sure it still fits.
The final problem I had with the fit was with the neckline. My bust is very small (just a 32B if you can belive it) and the bodice of the dress was just plain big. The dress even had trouble staying on a normal hanger. It took me a little while to figure out how to fix this problem since the dress was almost done when I tried it on. I wound up taking in the the center front seam at the neckline and tapering it down to the midriff.
At the start of this project I was a little worried that the dress would not be long enough since I am 5'9" tall. The pattern does not include a way to lengthen or shorten the bodice so the one size is all you get. Fortunately as you can see from the pictures the length of the bodice turned out perfect. If you have a petite size frame you may want to figure out a way to shorten the bodice.
Another pleasant surprise I had when I was working on this dress was the fact that a serger was totally unnecessary. Every seam is either a french seam or concealed in some way. The inside of this dress is almost as beautiful as the outside.
Over all I love the style of this dress but the fit needs a lot of work. It's easy to wear and can be layered with other clothes when the weather is cooler. This style would work very well for someone with a large bust since there is so much room in the bodice and because a bra can easily be worn underneath. This style would also work very well for someone with broad shoulders but don't be deterred if you have a thin frame like mine.
