A very pleasant surprise

The Named Inari dress is a pattern I've liked for a looooong time and often thought about buying, even gone as far as putting it in my "shopping cart". I could never however, quite made the final step to purchase. My reservation was around what it would look like on someone who had biggish boobies (DD) and i'd read reviews that commented on issues with the armscyses drafting. I did what normal curvy sewers do and asked the community for their opinions, and got some fab suggestions. 
I am a lazy sewer and can never really be bothered making many pattern alterations, so the idea to take the Concord Tee and turn it into a Inari look alike seemed like the perfect solution! Ta da, this was the result!

AND it was easy!! I used this Concord T-shirt dress hack tutorial from Cashmerette, but because I wanted to "cocoon" the silhouette, I gently curved out the sides so that my pattern pieces looked like this:

Front piece

Back piece

I generally make a 12/14D in Cashmerette patterns; for this I sized up to a 16 D as I wanted to have a fair bit of ease. I did end up adding a bit too much length and chopped off a good 10 cms from the hem when it was made up; the down side of this is it doesn't "coccoon" as much as I had originally intended, but only I will know that. 

I likes the deep sleeve bands on the Inari, so simply cut the bands deeper (about 5cms)

I have nooooo idea what the fabric is, it was a remnant from The Fabric Store in Wellington (from memory $5 /$10?). It feels like quite a robust knit, has a bit of stretch and seems pretty breathable, a smidgen see through (if wearing black bra and undies!). 

This was the fabric....... the eagle eyed of you may spot the hole in the piece (left side, about 2/3rds up). My original plan was to applique something over it, however luckily I was able to cut it so it didn't matter. In terms of pattern placement, I could see huge potential for it to go very very wrong with the fabric design....... so spent a while playing around with different design options :)

The upshop is - I have a dress I love and is super comfy. My intention with this make was for a comfy dress I could throw on over togs (swimsuit) at the beach and I got that. What I also got (& didn't expect) was a dress that I've worn to work and out to dinner. 

What also surprised me was that I had thought a cocoon silhouette might not be the most flattering for me, however I was really happy with the fit, shape and how it looks. Its a win!