Still Seeking The Perfect Sun Dress

I can never find a good basic sun dress at the mall.  We don't have the best shopping in my little town, and even on the internet, it's hard to find what I'm looking for.  Basically I just want something that is fit and flare with spaghetti straps.  I did finally find this nearly perfect dress at Old Navy.  It still doesn't have the exact silhouette I was looking for, but I was pretty happy with it, so I bought it, and traced it & made a pattern from it:

It's hard to see from the photo, but the bodice doesn't taper in well at the front, and I haven't tried to alter that just yet, but I did add pockets.  I just love having pockets on a dress :)!  The princess seams didn't come out exactly right, but I actually didn't do too bad with my first reproduction.  This was my first ever attempt at my own pattern, so I learned a lot from it!  And yes, I still need to work on my zippers:

For my second attempt, I moved the princess seam inward a little, but they still need to come in even more, and they need to taper in some toward the waist to fit my shape.  I set the pockets a bit too low, as you can see in the last picture.  This one looks cute, but I used a basic cotton fabric because I saw it & just loved the print.  So it wrinkles a little too easily, but for something I will wear occasionally it's totally worth it:

This pattern definitely requires a fabric that drapes well.  It might even be fun to try in a soft jersey knit.  I tried a pink floral linen-like fabric, and while the fabric is beautiful it's just too heavy for this pattern.  But my zippers and pockets are getting much better.