Weekend sewing plan

Because, yay, I have working sewing machines!  Monday night I took my two ailing machines up to a place up towards Tomball that does repairs (Sewing Machine Warehouse on Highway 249).  I'd called that morning, and been told that their current turn-around was two weeks, and that they charged $99 per.   Not good news, but they were the dealer that Janome listed on their site for this area, and none of the other places that do sewing machine repairs are even remotely near my house either.   So I sucked it up and packed up the sewing machines for a little road trip.  (Husband came along for moral support and to help with carrying.)   Just getting there and back blew my whole evening, but (insert happy dance here) my sewing machines came home with me, fixed, the very same night!   The guy who worked on them said that the repairs were so small he didn't see putting them in the queue, which he said was running more toward a three week wait at this point.  He fixed the Janome on the spot, and it turned out the problems with the Singer were, uh, user error.   Though I'd tried to follow the threading diagram in the manual, I did not have it right, and the thread wasn't going through the tension disks.  Plus I had the needle in backwards, because the needle that came in the machine when I bought it was backwards, and I'd been careful to check its arrangement when I put in the new one.   The repair guy showed me my mistakes, and now I'm good to go!  I moved my cover stitch machine out of the way so I can have both sewing machines set up, and I'm going to alternate between them for projects.  

So, anyhow, sewing project:

I posted this one a few weeks (or is it months?) back, as one of the favorites in the large batch of vintage patterns I got from my neighbor.   I'm going to make (or attempt to make) version A on the left, in a cozy flannel.   I finished drafting my pattern alterations last night.  I have a few misgivings about how this one will come out, because the pattern straight out of the envelope basically makes a long cylinder with bust and shoulder darts and sleeves.   The upper part of that cylinder looks to be a good fit for my measurements, but the bottom part would sew up into something a good two inches smaller in circumference than my actual ass.   So I had to add some curve to that previously stick-straight side seam, and I'm not sure how that is gonna look made up.  I put in an extra inch, tapering out from the waist to the hip, on the front piece, and an inch and a half on the back piece, for an extra five inches in circumference, which I hope will give me enough wearing ease.  I've never had a dress with this shape because they're not likely to fit off-the-rack, so I don't even know if it'll be a good look for me if it does fit.  But I like the idea of it, so I'm going to forge ahead.