I say recently completed, but all I had to do was attach a binding to the neckline - the rest I'd finished months ago, because the dress as I've made it is an incredibly quick sew.
But months ago I was a few kilograms slimmer, so even though I've let it out, this dress is now more glove-like than intended. Actually, thinking back, it was always more glove-like than intended, and that's because I used the wrong sort of fabric!
Vogue 1314 by Tracy Reese is supposed to be a close fitting, lined dress with draped horizontal folds of lightweight jersey from just below the bust to the hips, and is supposed to be sewn with lightweight jersey / sheer knits, and lined with lightweight stretch lining. The technical drawing for the pattern looks like this:
My fabric is a tight sort of a knit fabric - it IS a stretch fabric, but doesn't have much stretch. It's certainly not lightweight, and it's not drapey. This means the fit you see here is different to the fit I would have got in the same size with a regular lightweight jersey... but even so, obviously my dress looks quite different to the technical drawing: mine has a high waist seam, no draped horizontal gathers, and darts in the neckline.
My dress is basically the lining pattern from Vogue 1314 in a size 10 at the shoulders and upper bust, and size 12 from the bust down, albeit with a waist seam (at too high a spot) and neckline darts to improve the bodice fit. I've used the lining pieces from this pattern to make a dress before - this one, also overfitted (hmm, what is this thing called 'Learning'?), and I think they make a fine dress BUT it's one that feels too bodycon for me at the moment.
Here's what the side / back looks like - the back view is very plain and just makes my bum look huge, so I hope you'll excuse my leaving that view out:
And a bit more about the sewing... I was trying to remember the purpose of that waist seam in the lining pieces, and wondering why I'd omitted it last time I sewed this dress, so I went back and checked the pattern. It turns out there isn't supposed to be a seam at the waistline! There's a waistline marked on the lining piece, and last time I sewed the pattern I cut the lining pattern pieces at that waistline so I could add some length to the bodice. No wonder the waistline on this dress looks so high - it's a whole seam allowance higher than it should be if it was even supposed to be there!
On the positive side, I did remember to add length to the skirt, and I love the length I've ended up with in both the sleeves and the skirt. Both have raw edges, just because I liked the way it looked. I'm also really happy with the neckline darts which I pinned in place while I was trying the dress on, and with the contrast neckband, made from a rectangular scrap of navy blue ponti.
I'm not sure if the shoulders are the right width or a smidge too narrow on me, but I'm not really fussed if they're a little narrow. I suspect the shoulder width would stretch in a drapier fabric too.
I really like the shape of this dress, and I absolutely love the fabric colour and the bodice fit, but when I look at the photos of myself in this dress all I see is my stomach and my backside. Crazy!
I suspect this is one I'm going to grow to love though - and I'm already thinking of sewing the pattern again as intended, in a thin drapey fabric.
Back soon - happy sewing!
- Gabrielle x
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