Belinda Bellville Dress Part 1 - Vogue 2771

It's half term now so I've got a week off with nothing much to do (which is exactly how I like things).  I don't really need any new clothes but I love sewing so I've decided to make something complicated - it should last me a while and I'll get to do some interesting sewing.

I've owned Vogue 2771 for ages and have been previously put off by the topstitching (I've conquered that fear now after making Vogue 1121 and Vogue 1473) and potential fitting issues.  But it looks amazing on the envelope so I've decided to go for it!
I own the pattern in a size 12 so I made a toile expecting to need to narrow the shoulders, make a small bust adjustment and add room at the hips.  There aren't any shoulder seams or side seams in the skirt so I wasn't sure how I would be able to achieve this.
As I was making the toile I discovered that by far the most tricky bit is setting the sleeves in.  Very precise pivoting is required and the curves in the bodice and the sleeve pieces go in opposite directions so I had to hand sew them in first - even on this rough version.
I couldn't resist trying it on at every stage and it didn't look great to start with but as I added more the fit improved.

The overall fit of the straight size 12 isn't bad at all!  I think I could make an easy SBA by taking 1/2" on length out of the front bodice and either smoothing the curve on the side piece or taking a wedge out.  Somehow I managed to cut the left sleeve bigger than the right (by about 1cm - I guess the fabric must a shifted as I cut) but the right doesn't fit too badly. I could maybe take the top seam in a little from the shoulder down to get a slightly slimmer fit but I want to be able to move.

I'm not keen on the full length sleeves so I'll shorten them to either 7/8 or 3/4 length (as shown on the left above) and I'm not sure about the length of the skirt.  The dress is designed to fall mid knee which I'm not sure about but it doesn't look as bad as I thought it would.  Mr B says to go slightly shorter but I really don't like my naked knees - I'll need to decide if I would wear black tights with the finished dress.

Above shows un-hemmed, hemmed as the pattern suggests and above knee.  The pattern also gives you a 3" hem allowance, I still don't understand how you can possibly deal with the excess circumference smoothly.
As I went through the instructions properly I noticed lots of little details.  The dress has a mixture of 5/8" and 7/8" seam allowances and is unlined and I couldn't imagine this not being a disaster on the inside.  It turns out you trim one of the wide seam allowances to 3/8"and then as you topstitch you enclose the trimmed one with the wide one - very clever.
Any opinions on fit and length are welcome, please let me know if you think I've missed anything!