Oh I just love the fabric and the colours, and the dress looks lovely and well made. What a pity you do not like this.
Please do not be put off by the way this dress has turned out for you. Do you have the patience to choose another style of dress/garment and then to make a toile either in calico (not too stiff a calico either) or in gingham. For example Vogue/Butterick/McCalls do a very basic shell pattern suitable to be made up in gingham, and this is designed precisely for getting the fit right. Making this up in gingham allows you to see lots of things, whether it is on the grain, where you need to make alterations/adjustments, and then you keep this so you can see what needs to be done, and then make the necessary alterations on the tissue pattern. Hopefully once you have a ‘Master’ toile/pattern then that can be used towards telling whether any future patterns that you buy will need to be adjusted, i.e. are the shoulders too big on the new pattern, is the bust shaping in the right place or does it need to be altered, is the waist in the right place, and also the hip line, and of course the length you are going to be happy with. Going back to your shirt or coat dress, these are often blouson, and yours looked lovely. Do you have Fit for Real People as that is an excellent book on various fitting problems and they actually show the gingham method using one of the basic fitting shells. Can I also recommend another book called The Complete Photo Guide to Perfect Fitting by Sarah Veblen – my goodness this particular book is so useful in showing you exactly what to do, although you rather need a fitting buddy to help you do this.
I am sure the many talented dressmakers on TSP will help guide you through your next creation. After all I do remember seeing photos of the most beautiful coat that you made, I believe in grey and the back belt part had some lovely decorative detail added by you. Then there was another coat which you may or may not have made and wore to the meet up in Birmingham, lovely colours again, and finally I remember you sewing a skirt in a hurry ready to wear for your sister’s birthday – believe this may have been a wrap around skirt - so you see you can sew and can sew well.
I am the most peculiar shape as Twopence will agree with me, far too many extra lumps and bumps where I do not want them and of course they do not want to disappear!!!! I have spent many months messing about with a shoulder princess seamed sloper pattern direct from Connie Crawford in the USA. I have had to drop the bust shaping a considerable amount, added more to the front central panels, substituted my own armhole and thus sleeve head, and lately I have been drafting some sleeves for this both for a long sleeved pleated or gathered into a cuff type of sleeve and a two piece fitted sleeve, i.e. an upper and lower sleeve that has two seams. Once I am happy with this I hope to transfer all my pattern pieces over onto card and then will use this as my ‘Master’ pattern. I also have a dress dummy that was made from paper tape – not a pretty sight, and as I am sure I have put on more weight than I would have liked, probably need to pad her out more to fit a very snug calico and then that will also help me to get a better fit. I also use the long snake like curtain weights as plumb lines, hanging at both centre front and back and also from the armhole and believe me this certainly helps as you can feel this through fabric and if your essential lines are straight and in the right place you are on the right tracks.
Good luck and do let us help you in your sewing.