Vogue wrap dress

I worked on this dress today. I bought it last month with my Vogue 8246 skirt pattern, as the postage was $US 8.50 for one, or for 4 patterns, so of course I needed to buy 4 patterns in order to be economical. Vogue patterns on line are on sale again today. The international postage has gone up to $US 12.00, and now is the same for 1, or up to 3 patterns. I am not quite so tempted by the sale as I was before I pressed the shipping charges button. I am sleeping on it before I buy any more patterns. I have only made 2 of the 4 I bought last month.......
This pattern currently has 21 reviews at pattern review, and most are happy reviews. I read all of them today, and the dress should have been straightforward. I made a FBA of 3/4 inch by adding a side dart and then rotating to the centre front, and making an additional pleat with this fabric. I was very pleased with myself for achieving this, and I only referenced 2 books. Making your own dress patterns and Taunton press's Fitting solutions. Reading all those reviews did help, as there was a great picture of a different method of FBA to help me think this through. I could have just copied this but for some reason I really need to understand why I am moving the edges of the pattern here and there, so the slash and pivot method makes me happier, although it also makes me pretty slow in adjusting my patterns. I will get along faster when I no longer have to look up several books and 19 blogs before cutting anything out.

Many reviewers found the bodice too short. I did not lengthen the bodice, as I am a little short waisted, and the only suggested distance in the 21 reviews was 5/8th inch, which I thought was not worth bothering about. If I make the dress again, I will lengthen the front and back bodice by at least 1 inch. I did lengthen the ties by 15 cm, to allow for a bow with long tails.
I was really excited to see a suggestion to apply elastic to the front opening and then blindhem, as I have only recently discovered my blind hem foot. I did use this technique, but found it rather fiddly when crossing seams, and the finish looks great - but only in spots. Fortunately I started the blind hem on the underwrap ( I was thinking ahead) and my beginning messy spots are mostly hidden.
I had planned to fully line the top wrap skirt with the fashion fabric due to the tendency of wrap skirts to expose this region, but I made the dress with less fabric than called for in the pattern, and had no room for such experiments. Fortunately the dress is well drafted and I noticed no tendency for the skirt to sit anywhere other than where it is intended. This really is a lovely pattern.
I have trialled a lettuce finish hem. I have not quite finished, but hope to post photographs after some fine tuning tomorrow.