A successful failure?

This is my first posting after reading this blog for quite a while. Finally, I've appeared in a picture, wearing a piece of clothing that I have made!

I found a really super comfy dress at our local thrift store, and I had to have it, since it had these really great blue and green hues. It is so comfy, and fits well, so I thought I'd try to copy it. Here it is:

My local fabric store had this great purple linen blend on sale for $3.50/metre, so I thought, hey, I'm not losing much if it doesn't work out! So, off I went, tracing sections of the dress in my haphazard sort of way. The waist is empire-style, with an elastic waistband. The waistband looked pretty blah, so I thought it needed a nice sash to cover it, and to give the dress a little pop of colour. The front and back, where they meet at the shoulder, didn't really.... meet.all.that.well. So, I wrapped the shoulders in turqouise grosgrain ribbon, and sewed on a turquoise button, just for the fun of it. (I even put the buttons on with my sewing machine! Yay for figuring that out!)
So, here's the failure side of it all: I think it's a bit short, the front gapes in the chest area (good thing I had good coverage with the camisole underneath!), and overall, it makes me look pregnant!!! Whenever I tryo something on in front of a mirror, I tend to stand tall, suck in and smile. Stuff always looks good when you do that! But 10 minutes later, out in public, my gut relaxes and the posture slips, and the empire waisted dress turns into a quasi maternity dress.

.....but it's oh so comfy. What's the verdict, continue wearing it, or file it under "fail"?