The inside out on the hipster dress

I wouldn’t normally do a second post on a garment, but the monthly stitch challenge is ‘inside out’ this month, so I have a few extra things to show.

1. Most obviously, I have my zipper on the outside! This is the first time I have used an exposed zip and it is a lovely chunky metal one. Dress length metal zips can be hard to come by in my part of the world and this one wasn’t very cheap, but I had to have it (found it on ebay). It felt very strange inserting the zip after constructing and lining my bodice.
2. Speaking of bodice lining – I picked up these bright dots on a natural background in the remnant bin at Spotlight around the same time as my dress fabric (Lincraft). They were sitting about at home together so I decide they belonged together. The collar/neckline do not sit perfectly and those dots are just trying to pop out!
3. Inside that lining at the waist is a stay to prevent the waistline from stretching out as it is a reasonably heavy fabric in a loose weave and quite a bit of skirt. I usually use hug snug rayon seam binding but this one is a sturdy strip of pellon woven fusible interfacing. I ironed it on to the seam allowance then sewed it in the seam allowance before hand stitching down the bodice lining over the top.
4. The sleeves are lined with the same fabric used for my collar and waist tabs. I think it looks like watchworks (so maybe the ‘insides’ of the pocket watches?!). I wish I had changed my overlocker thread colour to grey.
5. I used the same accent fabric for pockets:I used a few different patterns to make this dress and you can find out what they are in my previous post.