Polka dots Belladone dress

I wrote so much about Deer and Doe lately, that it seems only fair to finally show you my first make from one of these wonderful patterns. I was so excited when I received them all in the mail (yes, I splurged), that I didn't know where to start.
By the way, how awesome it was for once to pay very small shipping fees and receive my patterns in two days, instead of waiting for them for 10 to 20 days, like I do when I have to buy them from the US or the UK? Yay for geographical vicinity.

Anyway, I decided to tackle Belladone first, mainly because I've had the perfect fabric for it in my stash for a while. This polka dot print was a present from my mother (who definitely knows my taste in fabrics) and it's a heavy weight cotton with a slight stretch (which is not recommended in the pattern, but worked just fine anyway). For contrast, I used hot pink bias tape (after a long moment of indecision between hot pink and aqua), which makes a color combo I adore, although probably not for everyone's taste.

The pattern per se was a pleasure to work with: super cute packaging, everything is in a nice big envelope (slightly bigger than Megan Nielsen's patterns) and it's printed on sturdy, recycled paper. I trace almost all my patterns anyway, but working with high quality paper makes the task so much nicer. I can fold the pieces without being afraid to destroy them or to find a crumpled mess when I take them out of the envelope.

I cut a size 38 in the shoulders, grading up to a size 40 at the waist and a 44 in the hips. The result? Perfect fit. Seriously, no modification at all and it fits like a glove. You can see in the detail photo below that the bust darts are a bit higher than the apex of my bust, but frankly, I don't care. This bodice is so perfectly shaped to my torso that I don't mean to change anything.
You're free do disagree, but I find this dress incredibly flattering on me. The little pleats on the skirt create just the right amount of volume, the pockets are adorable and need I say anything on the peekaboo at the back? I can't say how happy I was  that the pattern includes a hem facing, which makes the curved hem so incredibly easy and fast to sew.

The instruction booklet is written in French (as I wrote, there is an English translation coming soon), but it's full of illustrations to help you. Although I won't lie, I'm fluent in French (much like Roobeedoo, I'm very good at reading and less so at speaking and writing), so I didn't have any problem to follow the written instructions.
If you're an absolute beginner and you don't speak French, maybe it's a good idea to wait for the English instructions, and even then, you might want to have a sewing book (or the Internet) to refer to, since some steps are not fully explained (for example attaching the bias tape). If instead you're quite experienced and don't need too much guidance to construct a garment, the illustrations and a little Google Translate (I'm a trained translator, so it pains me to write this) should be enough. 

Finally, a little thing that made me smile: the type of pocket of this dress is called in French "poches à l'italienne", basically "Italian pockets", and I realized I have no idea how they're called neither in Italian nor in English... Can you help me out?

If you want to see more Deer and Doe makes, you can check the Flickr group and the Addicts' blog.