BodyLine Review for L304 & SOCKS369

I am thankful everyday for my wonderful husband.  I say this because I'm reviewing the dress and socks he picked out for me for our second anniversary (the cotton anniversary).  He knew I wanted the dress, but was unwilling to order it because of the shirring at the top.  I wasn't sure how it would look on me, at all.  He picked out the socks to go with (which look great!)

Alright, so onto my review.  First, L394 or the Antique Clock OP. 

Like I said before, at first I wasn't willing to order this myself, because I was very apprehensive about the shirring at the top.  I was afraid it would make me look lumpy, and possibly somewhat heavy.  However, I was head-over-heels in love with this print in grey.  Apparently, my husband really liked the print, too.

So, here it is hanging on the hanger. It's quite plain, over-all in construction, which I really like.  The print on this dress, while hardly obnoxious, has a lot going on so the plain construction looks really nice.  Also, because the top is plain, I can wear a pull-over sweater over the top and it looks gorgeous!

Another concern I had was the lace.  Here are some lovely picture of it, though:

In the picture on BodyLine's website, I thought the lace almost looked silly.  I actually told Husband that if I ever were to buy it, I would probably remove it.  However, once I had the dress in my hands and tried it on, I changed my mind.  It's quite lovely and cut nicely.  It does stick up somewhat odd, at the sides though.  I may make a tiny stitch on either side to help it lay more flat.

I was concerned because I own BodyLine's Sweet Biscuit Heart Chocolate JSK and the lace on the bottom was cut quite badly.  However, that wasn't the case here at all.  Also, the lace is pretty soft.  Once again, I was concered it would be typical semi-scratchy BodyLine lace, so this was a pleasant surprise.

The print is very lovely, and very detailed.  It features Harlequin diamonds, polka dots, clocks, and the printed on ribbon reading "Antique Clock".

I'm in love with the pattern, truely.  As beautiful as it is online, I think it's so much more lovely in person.  It's very detailed, and I love the distressed look to the clock faces.  In addition, I didn't think I could love the color gray this much.  Due to the many shades, it's really easy to coordinate with different grays without it looking odd.

It also came with a detachable bow, but I don't really have much to say about it.



I haven't really been using it, but I'm trying to figure out a good way to attach it to the back of the dress, since the back is really plain.  However, the pin is really low so the bow tends to tilt forward and look akward when attached.  I may just need to detach and move the pin up higher.

Alright, and as much as I love the dress, it's not all sunshine an rainbows.  For some reason there are loose threads all over the dress.  I've never had this happen with a BodyLine piece, so I was really surprised.

I know it's not really a huge thing, but I was irritated, especially because a lot of it was on the outside of the dress along the bottom of the shirring.  All I need to do is go along with a scissor and clean it up, but there's a part of me that thinks I shouldn't have to.  I know it's BodyLine and their quality isn't supposed to be the best, but when I buy a $20 Mossimo dress at Target I don't need to clean up sewing sloppiness.

So, in closing:
Pros:
-Plain dress constuction compliments the print
-Shirring fits nicely and is forgiving
-Lace is soft and lovely
-Print is beeautiful!

Cons:
-Lace on collar sticks up strange in one spot
-Pin on detatchable bow sits too low
-Loose threads everywhere!

Overall: I'd give it an 7.5/10

Secondly, the socks.  As I said, Husband picked these out himself to go with the dress.  Which, you may be surprised how well harlequin diamonds, polka dots and striped socks go together!

The lace on the top is so incredibly soft, it's kind of amazing.  Overall, the construction is good.  However, the bows on the socks are, kind of, in a random spot on both socks, once you put them on.  They look like they would sit to the back, unworn, but they really don't.  Also, these are supposed to be OTK socks, but they are really stretchy and have a snowball's chance in hell of staying up over one's knees without sock glue or fashion tape.

Overall: Nice constuction, but with some irritating flaws.  6/10

Finally, I just wanted to share some pieces I've been using with this OP.  Like I said, because of the many colors of gray, it's been fun to play with!

I got these hairclips and watch necklace from Claire's/The Icing after I got the dress, to go with it.  I love the flower clips with the dress, as it's something I wouldn't normally just put with clocks.

I also have this sweater that my parents got me for Christmas (but my big sister picked it out for me).  It's from Kohl's and the brand is Apt.9.  It's a wool sweater and is all warm and beautiful when there's a pretty clock "skirt" to go with it.  It was a nice surprise, since I had gotten the dress only 2 days before Christmas (it was late in the mail).