Vogue 1821 - Rachel Comey dress review

I really thought hard about this project before I started.  My friend Tam had made it and sent me the pattern, recommending I leave off the pockets.  I thought this kind of fit might suit me very well indeed, but I did want pockets for my first attempt.

On size: because I was tempted to size down in the Merchant & Mills Box box dress, and the problem with the slightly dropped shoulder is that it actually needs to be oversized to hang straight down, when I sized down, the entire bodice fit poorly.  I was considering that when I evaluated which size to make here, thinking long and hard about oversized vs too oversized.  I checked the measurements of the sleeve to make sure they'd fit and I think that's why the size XS seemed ok, as I knew it wouldn't be too snug on my biceps.  I think maybe the hang of the dress would be better in S, but it's such a huge tent that I'm not sure that would change how I feel about it.

I was really excited prior to sewing this and was willing to commit this silk - woven in Nepal - because it was a big enough piece with the recommended weight (oops, I was supposed to give half of it to Tessa...)  There's a shop in Kathmandu willing to sell me these pieces of silk yardage, the factory is outside Kathmandu and although I haven't toured it to report on the conditions I am making the assumption it's not a huge or crowded factory.  

For some reason once I started sewing I lost all the enthusiasm.  Maybe because the order of sewing didn't feel very neat.  The fabric is a rough weave, and it's not that much fun to sew.  The pockets hang kind of straight down, going out to the hips, rather than hanging to the front as usual pockets do (it makes sense when you look at the pocket/hand angle) and I didn't like all the weird extra instructions for them - I followed the instructions, but I think I got a worse result than if I had just stitched and undersewed in the standard way.  It's been a long time since I made a big 4 pattern, and in my memory the instructions always taught me things, and had really clever ways of doing stuff.  Now, however, I disagree.  The pocket method is crap.  Once you understand how the pockets will hang I do like the fact that they are there, and I like their position.  If they were a bit bigger they would turn this dress into a nice purse, with big handy storage areas...they definitely, however, add a lot of extra work to the pattern.  I have read in some comments that they are valuable in balancing the weight of the skirt in the back to keep the dress hanging straight, so that's interesting (also a good reason to make them larger and put lots of stuff in them.)

The sewing wasn't particularly onerous after that but I felt like I was slogging through at that point.  I skipped the extra sleeve detail and just created little cuffs.

I tried on the dress as I went along and felt very meh.  It feels like a huge, heavy tent.  The pockets are flapping all over the place.  

 

Then of course I took my blog photos and I have to say I like the way it feels when I'm out and about wearing it.  It's not a seasonally appropriate item and because of these conflicted feelings I decided to pack it away for winter and see what happens.  When I leave things sitting out I tend to donate them if I don't wear them right away so this way I can give it a break and see what I think when I pull it back out in the autumn.

I did think that I might like this as a sleeveless dress. I know others have said a heavyweight fabric suits the style better but I would be tempted to make it from linen, and sleeveless, and see what I think. (Very tempted!)

Starry Vogue 1395 dress

So I had this dress on my list for ages but I kept changing my mind about the fabric.  I read enough reviews to know I would have to raise the shoulders, and changes to patterns always make me nervous...so the silk went back into the corner for this one.  Instead I used this amazing star print cotton from Paris.  I covet pretty star prints!  I love this one!  So I took forever on the small details.

In real life it doesn't make me look boobless.

I cut a size 10.  Vogue seems reliable that way and especially on the designers it seems wise not to size down.  I was hoping that by elevating the shoulders, I would be functionally shortening the waist as well and it would fit better, and I was right! It still blouses quite a bit but that is because the overlayer is longer and it is sewn into the middle of the waist seam.  I think I need to make that seam a bit neater. 

Patterns like this kind of irritate me.  By which I mean, patterns which have a lot of very small, only sort-of-controllable details like meeting a seam where on one side you apply bias binding, and on the other side, you roll a micro hem.  Or putting a v in the center front with a seam and topstitching.  A lot of stuff comes together in one place and provides many opportunities for sloppiness and that unfortunate handmade look.  It makes me think I would not make this dress again.  Also, while I think every single blogger has raised the shoulder seam, nobody mentions that it isn't that straightforward, because it's a curved and eased seam and has to match at the center.

So, this is what I did in detail: I first seamed the 5/8.  Then I tried it on and marked how much higher I wanted it.  I sewed that (it happened to be exactly one inch more.)  Then I cut at the 5/8 mark, so I now had exactly a 1" seam, and I undid all the stitching, realigned everything, and finally sewed my final seam.  I had to ease the front into the back a little bit.  This is the opportunity to realign the shoulders- some people noted that the dress fell backwards during use, and you could compensate for the heavier back fabric by cutting slightly more off the front.

After that I wanted it done!  I used my amazing new skill of the micro hem foot on the front ties, and I cut about 5'' off the bottom when I hemmed it.  I skipped the elastic and the skirt lining.  I am still on the fence about those.  The elastic might make the skirt gathers more regular, but I hate skirt elastic...and the skirt lining would make it not stick to tights but the dress is nice as it is and I don't want to mess it up!  However it leaves me with this unfinished feel.  I also completely don't understand how to insert a skirt elastic into a seam allowance and I can't find any online help, so I suspect trying to add elastic would just ruin the dress.  Any thoughts?

Vogue 1408 jersey dress

So in keeping with my fast-fashion muslin making of late, I decided to overlook the fabric recommendations and make this seamy dress out of a single layer of jersey.  I reckoned it would be a distressed look and easy and would give me an idea of whether it was worth buying some expensive stretchy wool stuff to make a more serious iteration.  The pattern calls for "medium stretch" fabrics.  Plus a "medium stretch" lining - could get expensive... 

I cut a size 10 but didn't prewash my fabric (hm, does fabric shrink in an irregular way?? This could become interesting.)  I assumed it would be a bit too big because my fabric is stretchier than a thick ponte, but I don't love the pattern enough to trace it so I wanted to make the same size as I would in a less stretchy material.  The fabric is a soft viscose jersey from the market in Berlin, and cost something like 5 Euro.  At the end I had to take in about 1cm at the shoulders, and 1cm at each side seam.

I found attaching all the pieces to be very easy, although of course I was not stabilising the edges of every piece like the Vogue instructions advises.  I did one row of topstitching on all the seams, not two.  Unlike the other Vogue top of late, 1247, the jersey means that most seams can be convinced to match without a lot of effort, especially with my high-stretch jersey.  Without trying at all, every single seam matches perfectly except one.  My 2 meters was enough for this dress, but I didn't have a lot left over.  I don't make dresses with wide skirts very often and I think it's because I'm weirdly stingy about how much fabric they require.  I did forget that jersey is heavy!  I realised early on that the dress needed the support from the arm and neck bindings.  I just barely had enough fabric left over to cut some strips which I sewed into loops, folded over, and sewed it on like making a Renfrew.  I cut each of them short enough to have some stretch, especially along the neck as I wanted it to stabilise all this fabric.  I was happy with the result.  Hemming was terrible.  My new Pfaff sewing machine seems to be bad when it comes to knits, and especially when it comes to using the stretchiness of knits to advantage - the IDT pulls the knit fabric against the direction of sewing, and creates huge bubbles.  So, ugly hem.  Not too obvious. 

By avoiding the lining and the zipper and the extra staystitching, this was a pretty quick but still interesting jersey project with a nice set of lines.  It took some effort and I think it looks cool!  I also reckon you could do some pretty neat colour blocking with all of the pieces.  It has been a reminder to me that more effort is sometimes worth it.

As for fit, I think this size would fit me better in a less stretchy fabric.  I do feel like the body is too long - the skirt starts at my butt.  With so many pieces and no shorten-here lines, I wouldn't be tempted to shorten the torso length, so overall I recommend this pattern for longer torsos. 

Vogue 1247 Skirt

I expected to love this skirt, but as I perused online versions I became a little nervous about the shape.  It is not A-line, but quite straight cut, and it has this funnel at the waist that I imagined not being my thing at all.  I strived ahead in some owls from the market in Berlin, treating it fully as a muslin - I didn't do any bias taping.

I cut a size 12 based on my waist measurement. Even though I have never previously cut the size that Vogue recommends.  I had a bit of a depressed moment over this, silly how we fixate on the numbers sometimes, isn't it?

It is simple to make, but the Vogue instructions are probably good to follow - you sew the front panels together with gaps for the pockets, and THEN sew the pockets, instead of doing a continuous line.  I think best is to pull a bit of tension as you sew those bits, and also maybe add some seam tape along that pocket edge.  If the pockets aren't quite tight, they can gape at the front.

I thought at first that it is terribly too small and just overall terrible.  I did a dance around my flat in it.  Then I thought that really it's only terrible because the hips of the skirt and my hips are not in the same place.  I think if I take a 1"cut out right above the pockets, around the whole skirt, that it will flow from my hips instead of hanging up on them and getting baggy.  As for the slightly funnel-waistband - yeah, I really need curved waistbands!  But on skirts that just hang off my hips, they end up sliding all over the place, like up to my waist, which sadly is also my ribs, because of how I have a micro-length torso.  I am not sure if the only answer is elasticated waist skirts.  I still have at least one skirt pattern to go before I take a break from perfect-skirt hunting.

high waist, it actually hits my belly button.

I am facing how I need to get on with some sewing education.  Instead of complaining about how things don't fit, I need to start putting in the time to making them fit - and the hardest step - creating that list that skilled sewists have of their required changes from pattern--> person.  I have become slightly better about not making projects just because they are on my list, and also allowing my list fluidity with my mood, but I still suffer from a desire to make every project once just to see what it will look like.

Lately I have a few great friends willing to benefit from my sewing dependency!  I can't call it selfless sewing, because I think it's the ultimate in SELFISH sewing - I sew whatever I want (more or less) ...and give it to friends so I don't have to deal with the stress of owning more things : )  And my friends get to wear my stuff and they report to me that it is amazing.  (Possibly just gratuitous ego-petting.)

Vogue 1247 Top

During a cutting binge last week I suddenly put this fabric together with this pattern.  I have been planning to make the skirt, but the shirt gets surprising reviews (initially I wasn't interested at all...foreshadowing?)

The fabric is one of my favourites.  It is a light silk-cotton that I spotted in Wellington at The Fabric Store, but didn't buy it since I was about to move.  I was very sad about that and thought about it.  Aaaand!  One year later at the Fabric Store in LA I found it!  I only got a meter, another problem of mine...I managed to squeeze the pattern onto it by cutting a size 6.

Vogue size 6: I have never made a Vogue size 6 in my life and I suspect I never will again.  This top is so baggy that I thought I'd have enough room in it even in a size or two smaller than usual.  For reference, I generally fit into a Vogue 10 and occasionally into an 8.

I was hoping that by being exacting with the french seams, that things would magically fit together.  They didn't - from the very first piece.  When I sewed the first center front and side together, I was really puzzled why there was about 3 extra cm at the top of the side piece.  The answer is that there shouldn't be...and that got things slightly offset from the beginning.  I didn't find it exactly difficult to sew, but I think that once you have done one step slightly off, it's impossible to recover because there isn't a lot of adjustment room elsewhere.

That bust dart?  It's like, outside my shoulder.

But that's ok!  Because in the end, the top is COMPLETELY HIDEOUS. There is no fixing this problem.  I look like a pregnant linebacker.  Why do the bust darts end 3 inches out from the bust?  I can find nothing flattering about this top.  I had to force myself to hem it, since it was clearly a lost cause.  The silk-cotton is a good fabric for the pattern, so I don't think its lack of drape is to blame.  I can't imagine the shirt looking better if it were *bigger*.  Overall I am mystified how it suits other people so well!  

Vogue 1051 trousers

I haven't seen many of these in the blogs, and a short inspection reveals that the pattern is already out of print.  I bought it when I started sewing about 16 months ago, and it's been sitting on my pile ever since.  It was with me when I came to Switzerland, and therefore at the top of my list this month.  I found this amazing green wool in Frankfurt while I was slumming and waiting for my visa.

However it had passed me by that I usually wear a size 12 in Vogue, at least according to the pattern envelope...and the sizes of this pattern were 4-6-8-10.  So I cut the 10, not completely sure it would fit.  I tried to do a full frontal thighs adjustment.  It seemed to me like it might be doing absolutely nothing.  This is it:

It really only struck me now looking at this photo that I should have opened one side like a wedge...

As seems to always be the case, I thought the welt pockets wouldn't be too bad.  I mean, I suffered through them with the Rigel Bomber, I should be ready by now right?  No such luck.  And of course with finicky pants like this, you have to do four entire welt pockets, plus the zip, before you get to find out if the pants fit.  The result is that I didn't finish all my seams as I went - I zig zagged them later.  The welt pockets had me fussing and whining, and for the back welts, I put the welt piece upside down because I couldn't figure out what the pattern was doing.  I have sewn those shut to hide my shedding welt bottoms.  Anyway, I would never use butt pockets on these pants, and in fact I will not make the back pockets again.  My final lesson is that when you are doing welt pockets, you need mathematically precision, drawing out every step in chalk on the fabric before you move.  Because I still have no decent sewing supplies, I winged it, and got crap results.  

Bulgy waistband!

Is there any way to decrease the everpresent underbutt wrinkles??

some whiskering there.  And I know I don't have enough hooks on the waistband.

I will make the pants again though!  They fit just like on the model!  (er, except for the 6 inches of the hem that I hacked off - beware, these are really long.)  And I have the same little front whiskering like the model, too.  I guess the crotch curve could use a minor adjustment, if I ever figure out how.  In a loose trouser like these I think it's not a major concern, unlike in tight or stretchy trousers where my bar is higher.  I'm overall surprisingly happy with these pants.  They are my second decent pants from Vogue, my first ones are so straightforward that I am planning to buy that pattern again (I left it in New Zealand.)  However, I have the same fit problems with all pants and I am still struggling with how to fix them.

The waistband is high waist, ie they sit just covering my belly button.  On me that is a great, flattering style, but beware if you prefer low waists.  Also, the bell-bottom is pretty pronounced.  Maybe less if you are really tall, but I am 5'4" and removed at least 6" from the bottom of the pants.

Now however, I have made enough pants to notice one more trend - my Thurlows definitely had this issue, as did my Datura blouse when I sewed down the lining. When I sew the waistband to the pants, all is good.  When I fold over the waistband lining and sew it down, suddenly my waistband itself is floppy and ballooning all over the place.  Why?  What should I do to fix this? Why do I have a terrible fear that it is because I don't iron anything enough? 

Vogue 1351, in wool

I saw Lizzy's version of this and coveted it instantly.  I saw it in person shortly afterwards and this dress jumped to the top of my list.  I oh-so-cleverly went for some plaid directional wool that I found at Tessuti in Melbourne...thinking that it would be edgy and cool.  Rather regretted that- Lizzy's version in crepe is much better suited to the pattern.

I have always cut a size 10 in Vogue patterns and they are always too big.  So I cut a size 8 this time, forgetting that some of the designer lines for Vogue have less ease.  I lined the dress with bemberg in purple (which as you can see I had not hemmed in the pictures.)

Construction is rather confusing because you sew the lining to the inside part of the cowl, and then sew the lining in the rest of the way.  Lizzy's post on this shows the lining.  I had to lay it on the floor and move stuff around quite a bit until I got it right, but I was waiting for my invisible zipper foot and didn't have the zipper in, which made it more confusing as you are supposed to do that first.  It was not too difficult to figure out but a bit time consuming.  My only real gripe was at the end when I couldn't completely figure out how to shut the shoulder seams.  Vogue seems to have a tendency this way - to expect you to finish something perfectly by separating the lining and the fabric, and sewing them separately even though you haven't got room to do it, when I by then only have little straggling ends that won't meet up properly.  I tried to do it the Vogue way on one side and on the other side I just folded the mess together and sewed it as one (it leaves the ends hanging out at your shoulders), and actually the Vogue side looks much better even though I thought I was doing it terribly.

Anyway it got to that point and I finally tried it on...and the top half is too small.  So I guess I should have made a size 10, or maybe a 10 on top and an 8 on the bottom, after all.  I was quite disappointed which is why I just had my lovely friend Dana snap the photos before I bothered with the hemming.  Luckily I found the dress a new and enthusiastic owner so all has worked out well.  Next time (there will probably be one eventually as I still like the style and it does end up with a great finish if you take more care with the seam allowance on the shoulders ahead of time...as the pattern suggests) I would use a finer, drapier material and I would obviously avoid the diagonal directional print - although with a belt this won't look so jarring, I don't actually own any belts and am not keen to acquire them.

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.