Pink Really Needs a Dress Form

Some years ago I came about a piece of lovely shimmering lavender silk that had somehow made it's way into my collection, and it has been waiting for transformation ever since. I finally bit the bullet and commited this luxurious fabric to the scissors. A corset pattern adapted to be a dress. I simply extended the bottom of each panel down to the bottom of the fabric. Add a little lace...
Voila! That unruly pile of threads is a lavender lovely! I have used this silver and black lace for many projects and it remains one of my favorite fabrics. The trim is all from an estate sale, and I had been saving the last of it for this project. After some false starts with resizing the pattern and sewing half of the lining inside out (seam rippers to the rescue!) I was super happy to see it this far along...
I then open the front again and added the eyelet panel for lacing. Hip Tip - sew the fabric then add grommets, the machine does NOT like going around the metal bits! For lack of dress form I had to pin the tuck-ins and while it was ON ME, and laid it out on the table for pinning the hem... oi. Where's my seamstress assistant?

And here it is finally together. Needs a few more adjustments, and proper lacing (safety pins used in the pic) but as you can see from the look on my face I was totally delirious after a marathon sewing session and stoked to see it more or less finished!
Hip Tip - when you've been trying on your garment, and are sewing naked, your cat will NEED to jump on your lap and his claws need to be trimmed...