The too-late-for-my-birthday dress

This was just going to be a simple post to show you my new dress (unfortunately, I once again over-estimated the amount of free time available to me, so I haven't had time to try out the knitting machine yet).
But now, I think I should tell its full story. Because I read Tanit-Isis's latest blog post.
Last Tuesday, 4 September was my 32th birthday. I had sort of thought about doing a nice post about it, but between just returning from holiday and normal life (being rather frustrating with a job opportunity I'd been promised and waiting for failing to materialize) taking over, I ran out of time and spirit. 
Not that it was really a bad birthday, not at all. E was home all day and cooked me a really nice dinner and I received the best wishes from my family. I had planned to wear this dress for that dinner... but I didn't finish it in time. 

It's a fairly simple retro-y dress in black stretch cotton. It has the weight of twill but there are flowers woven in (impossible to photograph properly). The firmness of the fabric made it a perfect candidate for a dress with a slim skirt. 

That skirt has front pockets which stand out a little bit and a single pleat at center back for walking ease. So far, I've always used (often double) box pleats, but this single pleat is a feature I've come across quite a lot in vintage sewing magazines. 

The bodice has short fitted kimono sleeves with under-arm triangles and a wide-ish V neckline at front and back. Of course, I muslined that feature, to make sure it wouldn't slide down from my shoulders. I changed the angle of the shoulder a bit for that reason and it worked really well. Although, as a result, the whole top sits a little higher than usual, which doesn't cause any fitting problems except making the waistline about 1 cm too high (which, fortunately, isn't very noticable, especially with the belt). 

Oh, and there's a side zipper. 
And even if I had finished it in time, I'm not sure I would have worn it for my birthday dinner. The weather here is unexpectedly summer-y this week, so it might have been too warm anyway.