Mccall 4444 - (Almost) first self-made dress!

Well, It is not a first, I made one dress last year, but it didn't come out as well as I hoped... as well as the model on the pattern looks...
But then again - if I don't lose at least 10 kg, and get at least 10 more cm to my height... :-)
Anyway - I decided to try another dress, Mccall 4444


So, in a few words... This pattern is 'easy mccall'... It was NOT easy for me. Now, I am not a very experienced sewer, and there's a lot I don't know... but I expect 'easy' pattern to be suited for my skills...
The pattern is actually expalained very well, but the neck bands were a bit difficult to understand, and it has many steps... again, not my idea of an easy pattern.
Then again, I haven't made many women dress's patterns before, so maybe it is an easy dress pattern..
I've used quilting cotton. So the dress doesn't drape as nicely as in the picture... but it still looks nice.
Changes I've made:
1. I cut size 8, and expanded to 10 from the hips down...
2. I had two yards of this fabric so I didn't have enough fabric.. so I cut the dress parts about 2 cm shorter then needed.. thinking that I could add contrast fabric or something if needed later on. As it turned out, I don't think it's needed.
3. the gathering in the top area - the pattern's instructions call for gathering using two long stitches and pulling them together. I've tried that three times, and each time the thread was torn. I finally added elastic in the left part, and stretched it as much as I could when sewing.
4. in the neck bands - I put a button, not two hooks and eyes.
Other then that - no changes...
Here is it:





I actually think it looks good.. (though it requires some ironing). I like the top part, it is very special in my opinion.
The dress fits very nice over my top part, but is not too revealing (it is not, right?) I mean - even when I bend, nothing is shown that shouldn't be...
I might make another dress... this one certainly took much of my time and I know that my next one will take far less. However, since I am not a 'dress person', I want to make sure that I actually wear this dress before I make another one!