Vogue 8784 - the wrap dress everyone is "about to do"

So I usually try to get some idea ahead of time about my projects by looking online.  With this one I was stymied, because everyone seems to have written in their blogs, as of December 2012, that they were *about* to do this dress!  Any minute now!  But only about 4 finished reviews, and only one or two with detailed information.

Since I was planning to use a Liberty lawn, I didn't want to mess it up!  Also it takes huge amounts of fabric.  My lining was supposed to be bemberg, which I got from MacCulloch & Wallace.  But it has a funny feel to it.  Anyway I didn't have any other white lining so I still used it.  I don't know those tests to do to figure out what a fabric is, but my Bemberg from Mood drapes like silk, whereas this stuff had a funny wrinkle to it.  When I look at it against the light it has lines in it like a waterproof nylon lining would.  Shrug. 

Before hemming, close up view

After hemming.  Sorry, tights not so flattering.  And I'm not even going to start wondering if my hem is straight.

Overall I think this pattern proves I have graduated from beginner's school.  It' s a Very Easy Vogue, and it felt easy!  I still made dumb mistakes but they were more from lack of attention, rather than lack of knowledge.  And it's the most beautifully finished dress ever since I actually did hand slipstitch the lining together at the waist.  Of course the hem was annoying since my lining was partly cut on the bias and sagged in some spots, making it longer than the dress...I had to debate for days to figure out how to deal with this.  I ended up hemming the dress, then opening the side seams a bit, cutting about 4 inches off the lining and hemming it again.  Also I had forgotten to finish the skirt seams since it was lined - the lining is free of the skirt so I should have done all the finishing prior to attaching them.  Lately it seems like the finishing steps take me longer than the sewing-together steps of most of my projects!  But those finishing steps are the ones that give an item its longevity -finishing seams and making sure no loose bits are hanging out.  (I still often have lots of those!)

The size 10 fits well enough, but I am pretty sure a size 8 would have also fit fine.  Once I am wearing the dress I feel like I'm strangling my waist trying to get the neckline tighter.  This is actually a great wrap dress for larger busted girls because it has excellent frontal overlap and it has pleats (a la BHL Anna!) so there is lots of booby room (even too much for me, and some weird fact of bra physics calls me a 32D). I didn't make any changes to the pattern.   I think it's relieved some of my panic about using Liberty fabrics, too!  I would definitely make this again, maybe updating it a bit by cutting it 3 inches shorter and using the size 8.

Vogue 8755, the dress this time

This was a little more involved than my last few makes - I used a wool-silk blend, and the pattern calls for lining just the bodice of the dress.  I figured it would be good to get my fear of lining over with.  Since I hate facings, and all.  Both the fabric itself and the brick red Bemberg that I used for the lining were very shifty.  But they both had give and so it was easy to get the pieces to match up.

I cut a size 10 assuming that Vogue was lying about their final measurements.  (I went down one size from my listed final measurements.)  I did this last time with the Vogue Rebecca Taylor pattern, and the dress was still too big.  But I cut the size 10 when making the corresponding pants in this pattern so I thought that would be my best bet.

I had some weird hope that this dress would turn out perfectly without a hitch.  And I got all the way to the zipper before things went weird.  I've tried a few methods for putting in zips.  One method has been to baste the entire seam and put the zip in, then open the seam.  That's what I did here and it went badly.  This method has never worked for me and so I think I won't do it again.  Of course I wanted the waist to match up...but the waist seam itself then opened and separated along the zip.  Then while trying it on I noticed that the dress, while being really comfortable, is too big...especially below the waist.  I had to take a day off to think about all the undoing work ahead...then I re-evaluated, fixed the waistline and left the rest of it alone.  It fits great above the waist but from my perspective looking down, the pleats make me look pregnant.

The pattern said to sew the skirt together from the bottom up to the zipper end, leave everything else open, and sew the zip on that way.  I've done that before and I think it works best.  The final option, of putting in the zip, then sewing the bottom of the skirt, has led to weird things happening at the zipper bottom.  I can't ever get that bit sewn shut properly.  Also that method makes it hard to match up the waist seam.  But I've just bought an invisible zipper foot, so now I have even more permutations for messing up zippers!

The final steps of finishing - I put some hem tape along the lining and I used some lace hem tape on the bottom of the skirt (although I'm certain I didn't use it the way you are supposed to.)  I just machine stitched the hem because I wasn't convinced this dress would be very good looking on.  And I raised the hem about 3 inches.  I would have liked to seam bind the waist seam but the fabric falls apart so fast that it was impossible to get two layers into one piece of seam binding.  This would have been an easy dress to fully line, and I think a full lining would be very nice.

It's super comfortable - if I had the desire to make it again I would probably grade down below the waist but keep the top half the same.

 yeah, pregnant.  I told you. 

My apologies for hideous photos, again.  I actually made quite an effort - arranged a photoshoot at lunch with a girl from work...but I didn't check the camera settings and it was on indoor light.  The resultant pics are so blue that the colour can't be fixed.  So here's me with my bum timer again, this time on the upstairs balcony.  And rather unflattering.  I'd already gotten covered in spiderwebs and was becoming grumpy.

Hm, maybe a few blue pictures after all.  They suddenly don't look quite so terrible.  And I show off the dress better...but don't trust the colour, the photo up top is best for that.