Simplicity 2362 -- Halter (or Not) Dress

While I was busy working on my dress and jacket, my daughter was busy working on a dress of her own.  She wanted a halter sundress, and I had a pattern that fit the bill:  Simplicity 2362.  (This pattern is now out of print, but Simplicity 1800 Amazing Fit pattern has a very similar look.)  She made her usual size 10, but since this dress is not fitted around the shoulders and the bodice needs to fit snugly, she probably could have made an 8.

We loved the lines of this dress and we really loved the big pockets!

She chose a cherry quilting cotton for the dress, and lined it in red gingham.  Both fabrics were from Joann Fabrics.  (Another plus for this pattern -- it's perfect for all those cute quilting cottons!)  Here's a view of the back.

My daughter did a great job.  There were lots of details on this dress, the bodice was pleated and lined, pockets, etc.  She did all this herself.  The only part I helped her with was the zipper, and that's because it was a lapped zipper, which neither she nor I had ever done before.  However, the directions were good and it all turned out.

Here's a closer look at the bodice pleating:

And the back zipper (I've pulled it back a bit so you can see we used a red metal vintage zipper I had in my stash:)  Also, here you can see the cute lining (sorry for the slight blur).

Those wonderful pockets:

Those pockets proved to be a bit problematic.  If you have pockets like that you WILL put your hands in them, and because this is a halter dress, it tends to pull the back down (despite having elastic in the back and despite making it as tight as possible).  The first time my daughter wore this we safety-pinned the back of the dress to her undergarments as a last resort.  However, for the long term that was unsatisfactory, so since these pictures were taken we have converted the dress from a halter to a sundress by sewing the straps down to the back.  Don't worry -- it's still cute:)

Now that the dress is done, this is how my daughter feels about it:

I feel the same way, too, very proud of her!