Tilly & The Buttons Cleo Dungaree Dress. Part 2 - In which I learn some lessons for the next time I make this dress.

Since writing Part 1 I have discovered that the error on the front facing pattern of the dress only affects those patterns sold between 3 and 8 November.  All  patterns sold subsequently have been corrected.  People who ordered the pattern and received it prior to 8 November have been sent instructions on how to correct it.  I was just unlucky as I bought mine on 6 November direct from the charming Tilly herself, she was wearing a great example of the Cleo dress in dark blue.  How to correct the facing is explained here  by Tilly.
If you read Part 1 you will know I was contemplating cutting out a new front facing but I got lazy and cut through the middle of my too big facing then, instead of joining them together by sewing a 1.5 cm seam allowance along the centre front, overlapped the two pieces one on top of the other by the appropriate amount and did a large zig-zag stitch down the centre front.   Then I decided that I wanted to line the dress, as you can see from this photograph of the inside.

Instead of creating a proper lining pattern to fit the facing properly I bodged it by sketching the facing onto my traced patterns  for the front and back of the dress and roughly folding the pattern down  by the facing amount minus sufficient for a seam allowance.  It didn't have to be exact as, once I had cut it out, I just placed the facing with the lining beneath the facing on top of the outer dress pieces, which showed me the shapes I needed to match,  and pinned the lining to the facing to align it. I zig-zag stitched the lining to the facing.  Next I added another line of stitching about ! cm away from the zig-zag  and trimmed away any excess lining fabric beyond this line.  I then followed the instructions for applying the facings to the dress,treating the combined facing and lining in the same way as I would have were it only a facing  It is not a beautiful inner but it worked- almost!
 I thought I would be clever in cutting out the lining and eliminate the centre seams for the front and back as unnecessary so cut the lining on the fold excluding the central seam allowances.  This works well for the back BUT I forgot that I had a centre front split in the version I was making.  Because the lining need not meet exactly at the edge of the split, I managed by cutting the lining up the centre front from the hem as far as the top of the split and turning under the tiniest of hems on the edges on either side of the cut.  I might improve this and make it more secure by binding it with some thin ribbon later - or I might just leave it as it is.

So there is the finished article.  Not as exciting as other versions that I have seen on the internet so far- and I look particularly grim, not just because I am outside in the cold but also because our boiler has been out of action for about 2 weeks.   It is a great item just to fling on in the morning over a cosy handknit sweater, thermal vest and some warm tights when faced with boiler malfunction that has defied the efforts of the engineer to repair it.  If the boiler situation  continues I may well make a Cleo with a fleece or fake fur lining.  I heartily recommend this pattern to a beginner- or, indeed, anyone. Do not be put off by my Victorian Workhouse style version but think of all the interesting prints, exciting thread colours for topstitching and alternative pocket styles you could use.

So the lessons I learnt for next time were:
1.  If I am going to have a lining consider eliminating the facings and applying the fusible interfacing to the lining.
2.  If I am going to have a version with a split then consider a) lining only as far as the split or b) incorporating a small stitched pleat in the centre front of the lining to be released at split level so there is a larger amount allowed for turning back and hemming.
3.  The slit could go at the back and I might do this for my next effort. 
Do you have a pattern that you can enthuse about?  Perhaps you could tell us about it in a comment or, better still, write a blog post about it for the London Dressmakers Club.