And here it is in real life:
Yeah, I need a hair tutorial. Badly.You can follow all the drama on my blog. It's actually a size too big; it looks better here than it does in real life, but it's still very wearable. I just look like I'm trying on my big sister's clothes. I will definitely be resizing this to a 16, though, because it's far too awesome a dress not to make again. I love the box pleats in the bodice, which give it some shape but don't make it restrictive.
The really fun part was that, after I posted a picture to Facebook, a friend of mine who is a lady "of a certain age" commented that she made the same pattern for Home Economics class in eighth grade, in 1943!