Vintage McCall's 9514 and a baby gift - Edited-photos wearing the dress

A number of years ago my sister gave me a little old style school port that was full of vintage patterns. A woman she knows had them and made most of them. She had similar/same styles in different big 4 brands. I really fell in love with this one. I love spots and found a navy and white spot synthetic crepe at East Coast Fabrics a couple of years ago when on holidays in Maroochydore.  I don't usually wear synthetics, but I do like a crepe and spots and it wasn't expensive. 

This is the finished dress. I did make some changes. The dress size is 18... I'm probably a 10 + FBA with 14-16 hips. I did try  to do an adjustment but it wasn't a great success but I really loved the potential look. It was so wide on the shoulders and back/bust area. I asked my niece to try it on but it fit better on the back and bust, but not really right. At one point it was going to become a skirt if I couldn't make it work.

It sat in the naughty corner for a long time. I got keen again about 8 months ago and took the arm facings off and recut the whole top part smaller. This is why the cross over sits higher than it looks on the pattern and higher than I like.  The cross over still would not sit right with the ties on the inside. I bit the bullet and sewed down the either side of the crossover.

I also tried to reuse the armhole facings but that was annoying so back to the naughty corner where I picked it up last weekend again. I jigged the facings again for a bit, got jack of that and used some navy pre made bias binding that was sitting right in front of me... a sign!

Just showing how I didn't sew all the way down the front so there is the hint of the wrap in the dress still.

I made a wide tie belt and it has pockets I added. Thank you past me for putting in pockets (in the right spot too thank goodness... I did put some in a dress I made .. a Burda, but they are slightly too low and it's annoying).  Overall a really good work dress. Easy care, ok for air conditioned office although it'll be too hot for summer. No matter, lots more dresses can be made. So not perfect but a saved wearable piece. 

And here's the baby gift. My beautiful Goddaughter had her first baby, a boy! I found this remnant of fleece at Spotlight and brought it home and made a little stuffed toy. I had recently bought some little baby rattle insides at a fabric market so put one of those in..rattle, rattle!

This is for scale. Gosh I have new respect for people who make complex stuffed toys. Getting the stuffing in that pointy nose and the narrow part of the tail to the ends was really tricky and you really need lots of stuffing. All in all I'm happy with it. A great quick project. 

I've got jeans cut out and no real idea of what's next but really want to sew so we'll see what comes next. Still not able to comment on blogs. I'm still reading them so keep writing. When I get time, I'll look into that more.

With cape to keep cold off at work

Side view

Back view

Front view., my sunnies fell of when I took the photo hence the crazy hair!

A few wearing observations: I think the length should be shortened to just on/above the knee. When you are short, I think this length looks a bit dumpy. It feels overall too big. It's comfortable to wear and it has great pockets so that's helpful. 

Is it too plain? I have thought about putting buttons on the front:

They get a bit lost... maybe red ones? I think I'll leave it plain. I might see if it fits my niece better? I'll wear it though as I like it. Any thoughts?