Vogue 8766

I freakin' LOVE this dress!!!  This might be my favorite thing I've made and I think I might be able to have some faith in it's ability to not fall apart because it's fully lined and I pinked all of the seams.  It will, however, wrinkle like crazy because it's cotton but maybe the garment steamer will help with that.

The dress is Vogue 8766 and I made View B (upper left corner) because I thought it would make a really cute sundress.  I was very curious about how the bottom ruffle was going to look (and I had my doubts), but I think it is so cute and it makes the dress unique.  Did I mention that I love this dress??

Note to self: don't be lazy; change back to the 50mm before taking pictures because otherwise the pics taken with the zoom look distorted and like the top half of my body is larger than the bottom half.  It's also because my husband is tall so the camera is angled down a bit.  A couple of the pics make me look like a bobblehead; not attractive!

ANYWAYS, this dress was actually very easy to make and pretty quick too.  I probably could have cut out the paper pattern, fabric, and put it together in a day, but I've learned that I need to take breaks or else the quality suffers.  I used a lightweight muslin for the lining to add a bit more structure and to ensure that you can't see through the fabric.

And that brings me to the fabric: I used quilting cotton.  Let me go off on a brief tangent in support of quilting cotton (because it gets a seriously bad reputation).  I knew that I wanted stripes and that I needed a stable fabric. I looked and looked for something that would work and I didn't have any luck.  I grudgingly wandered into the quilting section of Hancocks and low and behold I found THE fabric!  I loved the colors, the width of the stripes, everything...so I bought 2 yards and went on my merry way.  It's just another example of how much better the prints are on quilting cottons sometimes so it's hard to resist when you have a vision.  Let me just say that I was not disappointed and I think the fabric was the perfect choice for this project because it's a very fitted dress and it doesn't require any flowiness and drapiness (yes spellcheck, I see your close-minded, judgmental red lines under those words but I'm sticking with them!).  So back up off, you quilting cotton haters!  There is a time and place for it and I love my dress!!

My stripes matching was perfect on the sides and in the center front, but I didn't really even try to match in the back.  I also wanted to make the stripes horizontal on the sides and back because a) I didn't want to match stripes anymore and b) I wanted to add a bit more visual interest.  I didn't want to use horizontal on the entire dress because vertical stripes are more slimming.  If the stripes were wide, I'd probably think about going horizontal on the whole dress, but I am happy with how it turned out.

I got a bit creative with the way I lined this dress, and I think I made the right call.  The instructions have you underlining AND lining the dress and that just seemed a bit much.  It's supposed to be fitted and I worried that all that fabric would get bulky, but I was torn because there are certain aspects about each (lining and underlining) that I wanted to use.  So this is what I did: I put the bodice pieces together and the lining bodice pieces and I went ahead and attached them as if it was a full lining so that the neck and arm edges would be nice and finished.  I also under-stitched the lining to make it nice and crisp.  What I did NOT do ahead of time was make the darts; I waited until the two bodices were put together and then I made the darts through both layers (more like what you would do with underlining).  So basically I made a hybrid of underlining and lining by taking the properties of each that I like.  for the skirt I just underlined with the muslin and then made the darts (so no additional separate lining).  I am very happy with the results because there isn't any excess bulk around the middle from too many layers.

The dress looked really cute before I added the ruffle, so I knew if I didn't like it I could always remove it and still have something I liked.  But thankfully I really do like the ruffle!  And it's twirly!  To gather the ruffle, I tried using 3 rows of gathering stitches as opposed to 2 and I am really happy with the way it looks.  I forgot where I read that tip (I'd like to give credit where credit is due), but it was a really good one!  The 3 rows really helps make the gathers more even, so I think that is something I will always do (unless I get lazy and use the gathering foot which has kind of been letting me down lately; this method worked better).  I didn't really try to match the stripes because I knew with the gathering it would scrunch everything together anyway. (apparently spellcheck accepts the word "scrunch" which I'm pretty sure is a Southern version of squoosh or squish.  Oh..."squoosh" is the fake word, really spellcheck?  Whatever...)

I highly recommend this pattern because, I don't know if I made this clear, I love this dress!!  I wore it to dinner and bowling (seriously, I bowled in this dress) the other night and I got several compliments. I'm hoping I can add a cardigan or a denim jacket and wear it to work.

Vogue Patterns

I'm still here, I promise!  I was on vacation in Las Vegas last week (where I wore all me-made items, I might add!  Go me!  ...but I didn't get pics...so you can take the "go me" back now).  While I was there (and for this entire week basically) I was sick too.  Boo.  I haven't felt like doing ANYTHING. I have been the living embodiment of a couch potato and I am now caught up on so many shows that I would never choose to watch on the regular (and will regress back to that opinion now that I am better).  So I have nothing new to show, but I AM working on something that should be done in the next couple of days and I think it's going to be awesome!  I'm excited about it.

Anyhoozits, I was also on my iPad constantly which allowed me to catch up on some blogs, celebrity gossip (oh KStew, what have you done??  Oh yeah, I don't really care), and stalk pattern sites/fabric stores for sales.  And what did my eyes behold but the new Vogue patterns!  I literally saw them as they were being posted (that's how much I was on the internet); one second the "new patterns" were still the old patterns and the next thing I knew the new were now old and there was new new!  (...I may or may not still be on medication...you decide).

Here are some of the patterns I have added to my must-haves (i.e. add to stash and forget I have them):

Vogue 1317: Aside from the fact that their model is clearly afraid of heights, I love this dress!  I like the silhouette, the neckline, and the belt.  I really like it in red too and I could use more red in my wardrobe.

Vogue 1315:  Seriously, someone get that poor girl down from there! It's like the director is yelling random things like "pretend you're the Pixar lamp from their logo!" I think I like this pattern.  I'm not 100% on it, but it looks fairly simple and more than anything it looks comfortable.  If something is cute AND comfortable, the chance of me wearing it goes up like 247% (I haven't actually conducted any research about that, but I'll ballpark it).

Vogue 1314: Good God, now she's having an anxiety attack! Can we get her a Xanax?  I like this dress, but I realize it's not earth-shattering and innovative.  I don't think I already have a pattern like it though, so I will probably add it to my collection (if I call it a "collection" I feel more justified in buying patterns).

And now...for the "WTF Vogue??" patterns for Fall:

Vogue 1312: I didn't realize that Vogue designers were so into Halloween costumes.  I guess "witch-chic" will be all the rage this year.  It looks like she's in serious spell-conjuring position (or ya know, about to pop out a baby or something).  She looks kind of mad, maybe I should stop making fun of her now.

Vogue 1322: I don't know. I just don't know. I can't even think of anything humorous to say because I feel like this picture speaks plenty for itself.  I guess I'll be the one feeling like the joke when I see these women's sportsjacket capes everywhere; so practical for improve comedy cause it kind of makes you wonder if those are really her arms!  I'm really not 100% sure...

Vogue 8824: Vogue's interpretation of a Snuggie; it's a fitted (somewhat) blanket with pockets for the remote and some snacks.  Nice try with the boots, but this is a fleece mumu.

Vogue 8832: "This is the tale, of Captain Jack Sparrow. Pirate so brave, on the seven seas."  Now that song is stuck in my head.

Vogue 8838: You have to kill your own animal, but once you do that you'll have a pattern and you're good to go! (Is it just me, or did we just find Carmen Sandiego??)

Overall, more blah than awe. I'm not really that surprised and I look forward to these releases to laugh at the models as much as look at the patterns (seriously, why the awkwardness??) There were several other patterns that I liked parts of (like the skirt or the blouse but not the rest) but I'm pretty cheap and $3.99 adds up pretty quick.  Usually I limit myself to 5 patterns because that comes to roughly $20 without tax, so I plan to pick up a few at the next pattern sale.

Scrapped - Vogue 8728

Well it's happened: my first unfinished object (UFO, they ARE real!).  It's disappointing too because I've seen so many great versions of this dress on the internets.

I want to clarify that this has absolutely nothing to do with the pattern itself.  It didn't have too many pieces, the instructions were clear (although kind of odd because it's a vintage re-issue, but I just kind of did things my own way), and in theory I should have ended up with a cute new/old dress.

However, I learned something new from this experience: my machine is hungry.  It's hungry for jersey and it doesn't care who knows it!  I wish I knew exactly what this fabric actually is so that I can put it on my "do not ever ever ever buy this ever again...ever!" list (that I will most likely ignore if I see a cute print or an awesome color).  I found it in the remnant bin at Hancock Fabrics (their remnants are great; sometimes as much as 2 yards!), but the problem is they don't specify what the fabric is just that it's apparel fabric.  I know that it's some kind of jersey because it's a knit that's super stretchy and drapey, but this jersey is actually kind of heavy.  One side of it almost has a kind of sheen to it while the other side is a bit more dull.  Any ideas?  Probably polyester like 99% of the fabrics found at Joann and Hancocks.

Well whatever it is, my machine continued to feast on it again and again and again.  I had to take apart my machine 5 times and a couple of those times ended up making a hole in the fabric (which maaaaaaaybe had to do with my impatience and eventual tugging on it...oops...and maybe or maybe not while yelling...).  I did learn that my walking foot is pretty much a necessity with this fabric because any other foot I used just made the problem worse (i.e. gathering foot is a NO NO!), but there was no fooling my ravenous machine.  It had an unquenchable thirst for this stuff!

So I think I give up!  I may go back and try again after awhile (we need some time apart...maybe absence will make the heart grow fonder).  I also have a difficult time with things that are left unfinished and they kind of eat away at me cause I know they're there...staring at me...