Dress FAIL to Skirt WIN

Here hangs a disappointing project from my early days of drafting patterns.  The problem is the bodice, which I listed among my failures in this post, but the jist of it is that the wrap top never hung right, and it looked worse after each washing, and was hard to iron.  Such a shame! 

I was at least pleased with the buttonholes and the cool buttons!

BODICE PROBLEMS

The diagonal lines of the V-neck were cut on the bias, inadequately interfaced, and not stabilized with ribbon, tape, or anything like it.  The strip of green visible at the V-neck is simply the cotton lining carried around the front.  Check out the close-up pictures of the bodice:

The top detached from the skirt.

So I disassembled the bodice and ironed the pieces so I could look at them.  Here are the pieces laid out, with blue arrows delineating the grain and cross-grain:

THE SKIRT RESCUED

With a sigh, I put the bodice pieces in the scrap bag, and assessed the skirt.  It had a plenty of fabric, the sheer green and the beautiful print, already cut in an A-line, and hemmed and everything.  So I re-fashioned it into a skirt with a smooth waistline, and pleated the extra width like a fan at one hip.  I used a zipper to close it. 

It still requires ironing every time it's washed, but as it no longer has bias-cut problems, the ironing is easy. I wear it with a slip, because slips make any skirt hang better. 

Here's the new skirt in action, as I dance!  If my eyes look a little funny (like yawning pools of Stygian gloom with embers at the rims), it's because the camera gave me wicked red-eye, which I attempted to correct in MS Paint.  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that is the extent of my photo-editing acumen!