Too nice to wear?

When I ordered this lovely rayon from eBay I wasn't sure what dress I'd make. When it arrived it was so much lovelier than I'd expected that I couldn't wait to get started, I don't think it was in the house for more than an hour before I started, and the dress was finished by the end of the day!.

I'm a sucker for the little sleeves on the Anna dress but not so keen on the panelled skirt. In the end I taped the front pattern pieces together then did the same with the back pieces, overlapping the seams. I cut the front on the fold and 2 back pieces, and just freehanded the curves around the slightly jagged edges. I also lengthened the sleeves by 3cm.

The hem came up 7cm from the edge, which I need to remember next time I'm cutting out this dress.

Overall I'm pretty happy with this, but the boob pleats that I like so much about the Anna pattern aren't the right match for the stripy fabric, so I'd replace or redraft the bodice to have darts at the side instead if I were to do it all again. I'm also now fully fed up with facings, so I'm going to figure out how to line a bodice next time I make a dress.

Despite this being both comfortable and a good fit, I have yet to wear it, which is really frustrating. I tend to dress fairly casually and while I'm not afraid to wear big prints and bright colours, I guess I feel like there'd be some raised eyebrows at work if I turned up in something so... nice? Maybe it's just not my style, but there's something that just doesn't feel totally right about it, and so she has yet to make it out the door. Live and learn, I suppose!