Strawberries & Cream

I have had Vogue 2785 in my pattern stash for YEARS.  The copyright is 2004, and I would guess that I purchased it in 2004 or 2005, so it's been neglected for about 20 years.

Now, back when I initially got my hands on it, I was slightly intimidated by the pattern.  The pattern envelope rates the design "Average" as far as difficulty goes, but all of those seamlines and top-stitching had me thinking that it was out of my league.

Now that I've worked through the entire pattern, I would agree with the Average rating.  That being said, if you choose to work with a satin or a slippy fabric, some of those godet pieces might get aggravating since the edges are essentially cut on the bias.

Which brings me to the massive amount of top-stitching that is included on this dress.  I generally avoid top-stitching like the plague, but in the last couple of years I have been attempting to get over my phobia with visible machine stitches, and I think that this project proves that I am making some progress!  Almost every seamline is top-stitched twice, and there are a lot of panels in that skirt.

I did fall back on a bit of hand stitching, though.  Most of the bodice edges are finished with bias binding and then top-stitched.  Instead of relying on pins to keep those bias pieces in place as they were wrapped around the edges, I folded the bias piece in half and then hand stitched it from the inside edge before top-stitching according to the instructions. 

My main issue with the drafting of this project came from the bodice pieces.  I knew that I wanted to increase the size of the bust slightly, and I did that with the slash and spread method.  My modification may have aggravated the issue slightly, but that upper edge of the bodice was not laying flat and was standing away from the dress form/my body.  And with a design such as this, that's just not a good look.  I ended up re-cutting the bodice pieces and pulling that upper edge in with the help of a length of seam binding and a line of gathering stitches.

That made  world of difference.  And while I am loath to re-do a part of a sewing project that I have already completed, I am so glad that I took the extra time to fix the issue.

Having now finished the dress, I do think that there is something lacking in the pattern draft itself.  Those bodice pieces just don't lay quite right, especially at the upper and lower edges without some extra help.

And since there is really no way to tell how the fit is going to turn out until the entire thing is constructed (along with a whole lot of top-stitching), that can be really frustrating.

While I was working on that portion of the dress, I decided that adding bust pads would be a good idea, since that wide neckline would make finding a suitable bra a bit of a challenge.  I didn't manage to get a still photo, but I talk about the process of adding some bust support to the dress over on Instagram.

And after that was complete, there was more top-stitching.

This project took a bit of time to complete, and when I was tired of all that top-stitching and setting in skirt godets, I worked on the skirt facing pieces.  The instructions suggest adding interfacing to the dress itself, and then stitching the facing in place.  I modified the process so that the facing pieces were interfaced instead of the dress.

And when it came to the zipper, I once again deviated from the instructions.  I was not about to trust an invisible zipper to this design, especially since there are so many top-stitched seams.  Why not add center back to the list of top-stitched bits with a regular zipper?  

Did I mention there was a lot of top-stitching on this dress?  Each time I thought I was done with it, I found another seamline needing another two lines of visible top-stitching.

There also seems to be an issue with the drafting of the skirt facing pieces.  

There was about 12" extra length on the facing.  It was an easy fix to create one more seamline and discard the extra length, but I have no idea why it was so far off.

I hand basted the facing into place before, you guessed it, adding a few more lines of top-stitching.

I even found a use for a quilting guide since the facing is a bit wider than any of the marked measurements on my machine's needle plate.

At this point, it was looking pretty cute, a lot of which had to do with the strawberry printed cotton.

The sleeves were easy to put together, with some added top-stitching, of course!

It's not really clear from the photos, but the head of the sleeve is shaped with four darts.  This is a very 1940s technique that I wish was used more often in contemporary designs as it gives a very nice shape through the shoulders.

While I am still not completely sold on the fit of the bodice, the dress does fit my body better than the dress form (which is always a good thing).  And honestly, the busy print takes care of disguising any issues.

Overall, I am proud of myself for working through the bodice problems and recognizing that it was better to recut and restitch those pieces instead of moving forward with a neckline fit that would have made me grumpy every time I looked at it.  

And I am happy to have finally stitched this design together.  The Donna Karan Vogue designs are always fun, even if this one gave me a bit of grief along the way.  And overall, she looks great!

Golden Brocade

I found this older, dare I say "vintage," DKNY design (Vogue 1773) at a pattern exchange a few years ago.  And I never put it away because I really wanted to try View C.  Once it's out of sight, I have a tendency to get distracted by other projects, and that particular pattern gets further and further buried under the massive mental list of ideas that I want to try.

Late last year I was contacted by Longan Craft about trying some of their fabric, and after perusing the website, I immediately thought that one of their brocades would be perfect for the DKNY design.

Now, if you've been around these parts for any length of time, you know that I am not a fan of polyester fabrics.  But I was tempted by the beautiful florals, and I decided to take a chance.

Lucky for me, this particular brocade actually pressed quite well (with the help of a press cloth).  Yes, it does have a tendency to fray, along with every other brocade I have ever come across (silk, poly, or other fiber), but a pair of pinking shears and careful handling solved that.

I did make a few minor fitting adjustments to the pattern as I usually do, but the main alteration to the design was to drop a full lining into the dress where the pattern instructions have only the small midriff front and back lined.  This was to give the fabric a bit of added weight, to cover all those pesky raw edges, and also to keep any itchy fibers away from the body.  Metallic fibers are not usually very soft!

I also substituted an invisible zipper which could have gone horribly wrong, but the sewing gods were kind to me, and this one went in without too much trouble.

Because the pattern was not drafted for a full lining, I did spend a bit of time figuring out the best way to go about adding one.  I also messed with the neckline since it was drafted with a cut-in-one facing, and I knew that I didn't want to use that method.  With that decision made, I knew that I wanted to keep the bodice lining separate from the lower portion of the skirt and midriff lining for the time being.

I don't have an issue with hand basting or sewing, so I knew that placing the lining into the dress would be easy enough to do even after stitching my newly drafted neckline facing into place.

In the end, I stitched the sleeve lining to the bodice front and back lining, and then hand stitching those pieces into place on the dress.  This allowed me to add the facing to the neckline almost immediately, which didn't give that v-neck a chance to stretch.

And the lower raw edges of the facing would then get covered by the skirt and midriff lining.

That lining also allowed for the facing to be stitched into place without being visible from the right side of the garment, which is always nice.

I didn't get any photos, but I also tacked the waist seam of the lining to the waist seam of the actual dress, therefore ensuring that the lining does not separate from that part of the dress and keeps the skirt lining from twisting during wear.

The hem and the lining hem were hemmed independently from one another.

And to make sure that the lining does not hang below the brocade, I crocheted thread tacks for each of the vertical seamlines on the skirt.

I tried something a bit different from my standard way of applying thread tacks this time around, and I think it worked nicely.  I used a thicker thread, crocheted a small length of that thread, leaving a tail at either end, and then stitched one end to the dress seamline and the other to the lining.

I think this is easier than trying to knot around a double loop of thread connecting the two layers which is what I usually end up doing.

And I really can't believe how well behaved this invisible zipper was.  Will it make me a convert to this type of zipper?  Not likely, but I am definitely relieved that I didn't have to seam rip anything on this fabric!

The silhouette of the design is great, which does not surprise me considering this is a Donna Karan design.  

And I love the way it turned out in a metallic brocade, which may not have been the original intent of the design, but I think the structured fabric works very well with that flared skirt silhouette!

[The brocade fabric for this project was gifted by Longan Craft.]

High Contrast

On Thursday, I decided it was necessary to wear this dress one more time before putting it away for a winter nap.

It was rather cold, but with a pair of nude fishnets and a warm coat, I made it through.

The dress had its debut in September, and I am just now getting around to going through photos of the finished dress that were taken in seasonally appropriate weather.

I can now say that the stretch woven suggested as a suitable fabric on the pattern envelope is definitely a better choice than my initial silk dupioni, but I still love both of my dresses!

This particular silhouette is definitely more modern than I usually go for, but I feel so very comfortable in this dress.

And if the perfect fabric comes along at some point, I cannot promise I won't try to make another.

But for now, I am going to move on to more seasonally appropriate garments . . . at least I am going to try.  I currently have a coat in progress on my sewing table, so there is a chance I may stick with that resolution!

Dress & Belt:  Made by me, Vogue 1220

Shoes:  Halogen “Hamarla-Lea”