And the award for thread hog goes to...

Vogue 1086!

I have finished this dress, and I have used much thread. But first, let's enjoy the finished project.

Tada!

So here's the story. In an effort to ensure that I didn't get lazy with this dress and start cutting corners, I decided to finish it quickly, while my interest was still piqued. 

On Monday I spent a good part of the day sewing and unsewing as I tried to figure out what I was doing. The instructions don't call for a full lining, which I added since the fabric is so sheer. But I wanted to avoid the pitfalls I experienced the last time I made this pattern (the bulky v in the back, and the wonky v in the front, and the weirdness in the armscye). So it took some experimenting to figure out how to construct this dress.

I spent part of yesterday sewing and got the bodice nearly finished, but by then I was getting annoyed at the project (I know, I know. I have a short fuse), so I took a walk.

Look at my hands. My natural reaction to being photographed is to make a fist. I'm not sure why. I think I'm protecting my thumbs from flash exposure. Yeah. That's it.

This morning was a new day. I set out to finish the dress, and I did. At about 2:30pm, having started work this morning at 7am. Whew! That was time intensive. The french seams (sew once on the wrong side, then once on the right side to encase the raw edge), and basically making two dresses since it is fully lined took time and a whole lot of thread. I started with a new spool, and I've worked my way past the halfway mark. Of course, I could have used less if I had made less mistakes requiring me to rip out and resew, but...

The back of the dress. I am wearing a little white t-shirt underneath for modesty, so that's what you see poking out at the top and at the sleeves.

Just a few details I want to point out:

The v-neck. It lays flat and looks like a v. Crazy awesome!

The topstitching, which you can't really see in this photo, is nearly flawless. I would be comfortable having my Mom inspect this herself.

The lining hem. I hemmed it with lace. Cayute!

I hand sewed the lining and the dress at the armscye, then machine topstitched. There's no weirdness.

And I need to point out the eyelet. I just adore eyelet. I would put it on everything if I didn't like variety.

So the low-down on the pattern. It's an advanced pattern. It requires more than just following the directions, which leave details out, like how to finish the front and back neck lines so you don't end up with balls of fabric wadded up. Lining the entire thing allowed me to simply sew the lining and the dress together at the neck lines to make for a perfect v both in front and back. However, the pattern calls for facing, which is tricky to get just right. The french seams are a nice touch, but are time and thread consuming.

Overall, I probably won't make this dress again because I'm satisfied with this one.