Self-Drafted Dress Disaster

Laughing at my roommate coming in the room, realizing I was taking a picture and jumping into the closet to hide

 

I tried to semi self-draft a summery knit dress this Saturday and it was a complete failure. Maybe not a complete failure because it doesn't look that bad in the picture above...but it just didn't turn out as expected.

 

I had this red knit fabric in my stash for awhile, and I wanted to make a nice flowy comfortably dress for the summer. I used the Renfrew top pattern to sketch out the top, and then just cut out four rectangles for the bottom and gathered them together. I like the way the top portion fits and the way the skirt portion fits as well, but it's the middle portion where the top and bottom meet that I'm unhappy with. I'm not sure if the gathers of the skirt make it too heavy, but it pulls down on the top. I wanted the seam to be right at my true waist and it's lower down around my belly button which isn't flattering on my figure. It's also too loose. When I made the gathers on the skirt I gathered to the size of my true waist, but I didn't gather the top and I'm wondering if that caused it too loosen up.

I'm not sure if it's worth trying to fix or not. I could possible slash it at the waist and re-sew the skirt onto the top 5 inches higher. I think the bottom hem might then be too short. Another option would be to just ditch the top and add a tighter waistband onto the skirt. What do you guys think? Have you ever had a self-drafting disaster?

Laughing at my roommate coming in the room, realizing I was taking a picture and jumping into the closet to hide

 

I tried to semi self-draft a summery knit dress this Saturday and it was a complete failure. Maybe not a complete failure because it doesn't look that bad in the picture above...but it just didn't turn out as expected.

 

I had this red knit fabric in my stash for awhile, and I wanted to make a nice flowy comfortably dress for the summer. I used the Renfrew top pattern to sketch out the top, and then just cut out four rectangles for the bottom and gathered them together. I like the way the top portion fits and the way the skirt portion fits as well, but it's the middle portion where the top and bottom meet that I'm unhappy with. I'm not sure if the gathers of the skirt make it too heavy, but it pulls down on the top. I wanted the seam to be right at my true waist and it's lower down around my belly button which isn't flattering on my figure. It's also too loose. When I made the gathers on the skirt I gathered to the size of my true waist, but I didn't gather the top and I'm wondering if that caused it too loosen up.

I'm not sure if it's worth trying to fix or not. I could possible slash it at the waist and re-sew the skirt onto the top 5 inches higher. I think the bottom hem might then be too short. Another option would be to just ditch the top and add a tighter waistband onto the skirt. What do you guys think? Have you ever had a self-drafting disaster?