Poppies & Tulips Dress

Lately I am bored with black and craving colour - can you tell?

I finished this dress late on the night of the 30th May - in time to wear as the sewing version of "thank you" flowers to Zoe and all the MMMers on the last day of May - with an artificial sunflower as a little extra je ne sais quoi:

Thank you for all the photos, Marylene):  I still can't quite believe we found such a colour and camera coordinated backdrop (I know that's completely off topic, and I'm getting straight back to it now). 

The amazing and rather loud fabric is "Poppy Filled Dreams", a stretch digital printed jersey from Tessuti fabrics; I'd bought just 1.5 metres of the delicious stuff. Since the poppies and tulips grow along both selvedges of the fabric - you can see this if you click on the above link and look through the pics of the fabric - I wanted to use a pattern that could work with a border print.  I obviously also wanted something that wouldn't compete with the attention seeking fabric.


Enter Vogue 8511... an oldie and now very much OOP...

I'd previously sewn this as an unlined blue merino wool dress that I wear heaps in winter, especially with the cashmere jacket pictured below (photos from MMM12, taken down at Barangaroo).

It turns out 1.5 metres is not quite enough, and that's why my sleeves have wide bands on them. I spent a long time on pattern placement for the sleeves to get a tulip just above each elbow, but those specially placed tulips aren't particuarly noticeable against a flower jungle backdrop. 

Don't worry, I'm not taking up the pigeon toed stance; I'm just mid-clumsy twirl

Adjustments:

The pattern is an easy one, but I've come to think the "easy" Vogues are a lot less well drafted than the Vogue designer patterns (d'oh - that should have been a no brainer, shouldn't it!). I do find the Vogue sizing pretty consistent (and is it just me, or is Vogue sizing reasonably similar to Australian RTW sizing?) so I'm now making a couple of simple adjustments for my shape on all Vogue patterns: shoulders "in" a size, and waist "out" a size.

I knew from experience that the sleeves were unnecessaerily wide and floppy so I folded out two 1+cm sections from the full length of the sleeve pattern piece (ie taking a little width out of sleeve front and also a little width out of sleeve back), smoothed out the resulting sleeve head shape, and also went down a size in the shoulders. Narrowing the sleeves this way rather than taking all that width out of the middle of the sleeve, where the sleeve head is tallest, meant that (1) I didn't need to gather the sleeve to fit it into the arm scye, as you do with the pattern as is and (2) I didn't need to alter the shape of the sleeve head as it still had the original height. The sleeves still feel loose.

Because the dress is stretchy I left off the centre back zip (as before), which means cutting the centre back piece on the fold. I added a wide band to the sleeves (to make up for length I'd had to lose due to buying too little fabric )and a narrow band around the neckline too.  If I make this again I'll add a smidge of length to the bodice and more length to the skirt, play with the fit around the shoulders and upper bust, and narrow the sleeves and arm scye. Obviously only if I remember to buy enough fabric though.

And the skirt was shaped; not right for a border print. Easy fix. I laid the skirt front pattern piece on the fold and pivoted it so as to have the bottom hem along the selvedge. The shaping at the waist had to also pivot down from a curved shape to a straight line, keeping the pleats aligned with their original spots. In retrospect I should have taken a photo - I am not explaining this very well! Anyway, whatever it was I did for the front skirt I also did for the back :).

Here's a view of the insides of the bodice; I thought you might like to see that my lining is just as loud as my outer fabric. My lining is rather stretchy and a bit heavier than the outer so I treated it like an underlining and held it taut as I sewed it to the outer fabric pieces.

And that's it!

See you anon,
              Gabrielle

Teal Blue Wool Jersey Dress (V8511)

I thought I was going to be posting about my finally completed V8718 suit ... but I haven't had the self-discipline to re-fit and line the skirt! The jacket is ready and looking pretty nice on the dummy, but I don't want to show you it without the skirt.

Instead, here's my latest distraction - Vogue 8511 made in a wool jersey. 

I've replaced my original late night no make-up, I-am-a-mess photos with overcast not much light in winter photos - not much gain... 

I really don't sew with a plan. I buy fabrics and patterns with a plan, but then I tend to sew what I feel like. This dress is a classic example - the fabric is a wool jersey, $24 for a 1.5m x 130cm remnant with a 'fault', and all along I was planning for this to be a plain and cosy long sleeved top that I could layer and wear with skirts or trousers.  But then I noticed this post by Carolyn, and recalled that I had a similar Vogue pattern (V8511) to the Burda one she'd used. When I checked the pattern envelope it estimated a sleeveless version of the dress in size 14 only needed 1.4m for a 150cm wide fabric! Given they always seem to allow a bit of extra fabric in these reckonings I thought it worth a try... and laying out the fabric pieces on the fabric I found I could fit the 3/4 sleeve version (pattern envelope estimate of 1.9m for 150cm wide fabric, size 14). Only just, of course. The corners of some pieces were somewhat trimmed but still within seam allowances, and the sleeves were about 2cm shorter than intended.

Here are two more views of the dress, front and back:



and the dress on the dummy:

 

Pattern comments:
The recommended fabrics for this dress include knits and wovens. Obviously I used a knit fabric, and I started out making this dress in a size 14 with a little extra room allowed around the waist. That turned out to be way too big, and I had to take all my bodice seams in to make it more like a size 12. I think the bodice now fits well, but that was quite a bit of taking in. Maybe it would have been fine in a size 14 with a woven fabric.  I also found a zip was not required with a knit fabric, which is always good news.  The dress has a lined bodice, but the skirt is not lined - not sure why not. I chose not to line at all, and I am thinking to make a slip separately for this and other unlined knee-length dresses. I think apart from sizes needing  to be adjusted for knits my only adverse comment about this pattern would be the sleeve widths - the envelope drawings show fitted sleeves but these turned out quite wide. If I make this again I'll take the sleeves in too.

Here's the technical drawing from the pattern envelope:

If you like this dress, Hand Sewn Home Grown, Jorth and A Sewn Wardrobe have made some lovely versions you might also want to check out...



 

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A postscript - although I prefer to be able to sew without a plan, I do need a plan.  I have an evening dinner "do" coming up in a few weeks, for which the dress code is cocktail.  I bought some rose coloured lace and a lining fabric at The Fabric Store's 1 day sale on Thursday, and was thinking to make a 3/4 sleeve dress with fitted bodice and ?? not sure skirt. This is what my fabrics look like:



Any suggestions as to patterns (Vogue or Burda preferably) or styles? There's 2 metres there.... if necessary I can probably get a bit more.