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.

Completed - McCalls 6505

I posted about McCalls 6505 while in progress here and it is now complete.  Let me just start out by saying: I love this dress!  I need more occasions to actually wear it (or I guess I could just be super fancy around the house or shopping at Target).  Here is the pattern as a reminder:

I was having some issues with some bagginess in the front midsection because the front underlining is just one piece.  I wasn't sure how to fix it, so I tried ripping out the side seams and restitching them again but taking out significantly more from the front piece than the back.  I actually think it helped a lot!  It helped to give more definition in the waist as well so it was less sack-like (if you look at the picture, it definitely looks a little bit shapeless on the model, so if you decide to make this dress I'd think about carving a bit more out of the sides). I made a 6 and it fit everywhere else, so I think that's just how the pattern is.

Don't adjust your monitor: I really AM that pale and reflective.  You're also probably getting tired of seeing my sunroom, but it has the best light in the house (because of, you know, the sun.  In this room.  Which is a sun-room).  This dress came out exactly how I pictured in my mind!  And even better than that: it was easy!  I envisioned the potential disasters of working with lace, but honestly it was not that different from any other fabric (and it was easier than some; poly-spandex blend: I'm talking to you!).

In all honesty, I really didn't use the instructions because I found them overwhelming and confusing.  I also modified the pattern by not putting in a lining.  I knew that this dress was going to be worn in Las Vegas...in July...where it is currently 112 degrees, so the fewer layers the better.  The instructions also had you fully make the underlining/lining part first before ever attaching the lace, and that just seemed strange.  I thought that "underlining" meant a layer of fabric that is basted to the main fabric and then the two are used as one.  Am I wrong about that?  I would have also had to make the darts in each layer one at a time as opposed to making them to the underlining and lace at the same time (which is what I ended up doing and I think it made the process so much easier!).  I was a little lazy in some places with the underlining (i.e. folding over and stitching to finish the neckline and armhole edges as opposed to making a facing), but I knew that it would be concealed by the lace so it worked fine.

I used the selvedge edge of the lace as my trim around the neck, back, sleeves, and bottom hem.  It was actually really easy to attach the trim and it made it to where I didn't have to hem anything (even better).  I have a confession to make: I actually just pinked the bottom of the underlining fabric because it's covered by the lace trim and you can't see it.  Since I used the lace and underlining as one piece of fabric, I forgot to hem before sewing it all up.  It works though and I don't think it will fray too much.  There is also a 20 inch invisible zipper in the center back and it was surprisingly easy to put in as well.

Here's another confession: I could tell that the poly-shantung fabric I used as my underlining was going fray like mad, so I actually used my pinking shears to cut out the fabric.  I'm sure that's breaking like 23 different sewing rules and I might have my sewing card revoked or something, but it actually worked really well.  I didn't have any fraying issues at all, so it's something you might consider if you find yourself working with fabric that wants to fall apart.

I looked up lace dresses online and I saw that they are everywhere!  They are also mostly upwards of $100, so the fact that this dress cost me about $22 to make is just icing on the cake!  I think that means I should use the savings to go out and buy a new pair of shoes that I can actually walk farther than across my house in because as fabulous as these are, they HURT! This pretty much sums up what I think about them:

But they're so cute...maybe I'll try a different brand of cushy insoles even though I already have some in them and they aren't any more comfortable.  I'm wearing the dress though, even if I have to wear flip flops!  It's Vegas afterall; that city has seen it all!