Thanks everyone for all the suggestions about making buttons stay put. There are quite a few things there that I haven’t tried yet, so I’m going to have another go at the ones on my husband’s coat.

Meanwhile my muslin of Vogue 1087 is finished! Here’s the envelope photo.

Here it is on my dressform. Despite following the instructions absolutely precisely, my dress wraps the opposite way to the one on the envelope. I think Vogue must have flipped the picture because a few people on Pattern Review have found the same thing.

Those who are likely to be grossed out by pasty skin, lack of lipstick, and spots should look away now. I was tempted to touch this picture up. For anyone who’s still reading, here it is on me.

It fits a lot better than I expected.
This pattern comes in sizes 4-10 or 12-18; unfortunately I really need a combination of 10 and 12. This is a 10 throughout so I’m surprised it’s not too small on the bottom half.

The only thing I really need to change is that it could do with a little more length over the chest. It doesn’t show in the pictures because my fabric has a lot of stretch, but it feels tight. It doesn’t have any adjustment lines for changing the length above the waist (one day I will learn to look out for the dreaded small print ‘no provision for above-waist adjustment’ before I buy a pattern) so I’ve just eyeballed adding the extra length on the pattern pieces.

So I have armed myself with suitable needles and thread and cut out the expensive blue wool jersey. No going back now!