Incision and sewing updates

I took the dressing off of the incision today. It had been on for three days and that should be long enough. I was wrong about the size of the incision: it's actually about 2 1/2" long. That's still long and it really does kind of look like an extra mouth was cut into my neck. The incision looks like it's healing just fine and the stitches are dissolving, I think. The sides of the incision are still together in most places and that bodes well for it healing into a nice-looking scar.

I think I need to cover the incision while I'm sleeping and then leave it open to the air again tomorrow. I know it's better to leave it open to the air so it heals but I woke up several times last night trying to scratch at the incision through the gauze because it had that "healing itch". I don't want to tear the incision open in my sleep and I don't know of another way to stop me from scratching at it other than covering it. I figure that as long as I leave it open to the air during the day it'll be ok.

I decided to use a different fabric for my dress because I just couldn't get the pattern to line up the way I wanted with my first choice. I ended up cutting out the pattern from this gorgeous fabric that I recently bought:

Stretch cotton large print fabric

I love this fabric! It's got a huge pattern on it with alternating solid flowers and dotted circles and I just love the bright colours against the black background. I first thought about trying to put certain parts of the pattern in certain areas (like the big, colourful flowers near the top and bottom, say) but then I said, "to heck with that" and just cut it out in the most efficient layout possible. I decided to do this because I liked the look of the fabric when I'd just hold it up and let it drop in folds and I figured the best way to get that look was to just cut it without trying to put certain features here or there.

This fabric is almost 60" wide and after cutting out my pattern I have nearly two yards of it left, so there's plenty there if I need to re-cut any pieces or if I want to make another style of dress or a skirt or something. I hope that the fabric looks as awesome made up as it does in my head :)

I also made one final change to the dress pattern. Instead of having the back skirt come straight down, I added an inch to the hem of each of the side back and center back pieces, putting the extra away from the sides of the skirt. Vintage skirt patterns have this extra fabric back there - straight skirts are straight in front and like an a-line in the back - and I find that this style is more comfortable when walking and it looks better on me. If for some reason this modification doesn't look right it's easy enough to remove. This alteration would be more noticeable on the other fabric but it won't even show on the fabric I decided to use.

We're going to look at some open houses tomorrow and I'm also hoping to at least baste the seams together to check the fit of this dress. If it fits, I'll cut out the lining and finish the dress. I hope it works!