The story so far...

So, as I said in my little introduction, I've sewn a rather limited number of successful (truly wearable) garments, and only one item in this category for myself.

For me, I used New Look 6808.  It was a fairly simple pattern and I'd really like to sew it again. It was my first go at facings and sleeves and a regular (non-invisible) zipper.

Wow, polka-dots!  New Look 6808, view B (with a few little tweaks).

Little pleats with button accents I added at the neckline.

After sewing up the top according to the pattern instructions, I realized I was not a huge fan of the boat-neck neckline. It was a little gapey and I could not get the thing to lie flat against me. To remedy this, I just made two little pinch/folds in the neckline and stitched them down, adding a couple of vintage buttons I had in my stash (they're white, and the same size as the dots on the fabric (also from my stash), so they're not super easy to see in the picture). I'd rather die than have an accomplished sewist check out the other little improvised tweaks I made around the shoulder seams and the horrifying dart I sneaked in at the back of the neckline, but all in all the thing is wearable...if you love polka-dots, like me. I'll be taking an alterations and repairs class in early February, so hopefully, next time I'm in situation where I need to do some tweaking to a garment after it's been sewn up, it'll turn out a little more polished!

For my other "successful" pieces, I sewed the same thing...twice. Does that only count as one, then? Whatever, I sewed two. A pair each for my boyfriend and my grandpa as Christmas presents."What could they be?" you ask. If I said they were separates, would you be surprised? Well, they were. Pajama pants with New Look 6924.

He would not model them for me, so I was forced to try to arrange them nicely on the carpet. ...Sigh.

Here's the pair I sewed for the boy. They're a navy blue cotton blend broadcloth from fabric.com with orange contrasting ties and cuff piping (he loves the Chicago Bears). Don't be mistaken, though, when I said "successful" I by no means meant perfect, or even as polished as I'd liked them to have turned out, but that's how it goes!

I added cuffs with contrasting piping and polka-dotted facings.

I improvised a little again here with these. If you look at the pattern illustration, there are no cuffs at the bottom of the legs, but I wanted to add some contrasting piping to make them a little bit more interesting and decided I needed to add extra fabric at the bottom to accomplish this. I tossed and turned for a couple of nights as I tried to fall asleep, visions of cuffs, cuff facings, piping and zipper presser feet dancing through my head. I was a little baffled about how to have both rows of piping on the cuff without also having visible stitches galore on the right side of the fabric. I muddled through and ended up edge-stitching next to the upper strip of piping in order to sew down the edge of the cuff facing. Phew, done.

Oh, the allure of separates. So manageable, so much faster to complete...but so not a lovely twirly party dress. That attitude is going to change this year, I promise! I will absolutely find manageable and successfully complete a dress project, and that's that. ...I just might need to take a few more baby steps to get there.