Cut Out Shift Dress Ideas - Please Help Me Decide!!

As I said in my previous post I am very indecisive which I know isn't great for a designer! I should be able to make decisions right?! Well with this shift dress I have a major choice to make - Which design do I like best and want to develop? This is where I need your help.....

I have been furiously pinning the Paris fabric to the shift dress on my dress form in various shapes and sizes to see where I want the cut out sections to be. But turns out this has just made me even more confused! Here are the options....


DESIGN 1: This one is based off the t-shirt I made earlier with two diamond shapes which show round the front and the back. I could alter the position of the diamonds and the size.

DESIGN 2: This one is just a progression of design 1 with the diamonds meeting at the waistline symmetrically.

DESIGN 3: Single asymmetrical band across the waistline in two different widths.

DESIGN 4: Random patches of the material. Might end up changing the shape of them to rectangles of different sizes if I go with this one.

DESIGN 5: With this one I think I would make the section below the waist slightly narrower as it looks unbalanced as it i, but this is the general idea...

DESIGN 6: This is a follow on from the previous design. The top bit will hit the shoulder seam but I ran out of material so you'll have to use your imagination!

DESIGN 7: Asymmetric look again.

DESIGN 8: For this one I broke up the previous design into two different curves. I was getting tired by this point so its quite messy - sorry about that!

DESIGN 9: Final one! For this one I basically did the opposite to design 6.

Phew! That was a lot of designs! I would love any feedback or comments you have to help me decide on which on to go with. Which one is your favorite? 

Cut Out Shift Dress Progress Report

I have finally made some headway with the cut out shift dress! So here it is.


First I started to make the shift dress. After a few trial and error attempts I ended up making a basic pattern for a dartless shift dress. My first thoughts were to make it quite loose fitting but trying this out I found that this would distort the pictures of the Paris printed fabric so I decided on a tighter fit. In the end this dress will be very slimming as the triangles will bring in the waist and give you a great curvy shape. That's the plan anyway!

Here a few pictures of the basic shift. The fabric I used is black twill with a 20% stretch. This will add some comfort to the dress - I like to use fabric with a bit of stretch for tighter fitting designs.

Front

Back

As you have probably noticed my dress form is slightly wonky so sorry about that! I don't really know how that happened! Still works. I have sewn up all the seams except from the left hand side which is where I intend to put an invisible zipper. 

Now for the hard bit - adding the cut out triangles in the right place. For this part I just started experimenting with placement and size to see what I like the look of. I haven't quite finished this part yet and just took a few snap shots of my first attempt. Still got some work to do...

The dress will eventually have two cut out sections just as soon as I decide on where they will go. I can be quite indecisive so this may take some time!!

Let me know what you all think of the first attempt and where you would put the second cut out piece. Are you as indecisive as me? Any help or comments are very welcome!