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.

A Promise is a Promise

I promised last week that I would have photos of Vogue 1169 for you by early this week. It is now early this week, and I am not finished with Vogue 1169. Let me explain.

Covered buttons are doing me in. The fabric is slippery, thick and fray-ey, and all around stupid. So to cover a button (which I have never previously attempted) is a task that is beyond my level of skill. I fumbled around with it, I looked online for tutorials and tips, tried those tutorials and tips, and still came up empty handed. No covered buttons for me.

*sigh*

As a result, in the meantime I am weighing my options. I could find a similarly colored fabric that is lighter weight and not as slippery to cover my buttons with, I could keep trying with the fabric I have (the cons of that is that it would require a lot of repentance later for my use of profanities), or I could give up on the idea of covered buttons and just buy some that would work well with the suit.



But since I promised photos, I will give you photos. The projected is finished, aside from sewing on buttons and doing a final wash and press.

This is the jacket. There are shiny spots from irresponsible pressing, which will come out in the wash. The fit is pretty good (albeit a bit tight), and I adore the seaming and piping and decorative hand stitching. There are so many details that I love.

This is one of the welt pockets (again disregard the shine of the fabric). The pockets were interesting to construct. I don't think I've ever actually constructed anything so intricate. The piping, the pocket lining (it is a functional pocket, although small), the welt... It was interesting and required a lot of pressing to get things to lay just right.

The collar was also interesting and fun to construct. And I love the detail of the piping. It really adds something special.

At the back, there is a little pleat in the peplum. It is cute, however this fabric lays like a tarp, so to ensure that the pleat doesn't stick straight out I tacked it down. It is not a free flowing pleat.





And then we have the skirt. The fit is not my favorite (there's a bit of poofiness in the abdominal area which serves only to emphasize my pudge), but by the time I figured that out I had already done all the hand-stitching, and in accordance with true Gordita nature, I decided that an ill-fitting skirt was better than ripping out and redoing all those stitches.

Would you want to redo all those stitches?

And just like the pleat in the peplum, this little detail on the back of the skirt is tacked down because otherwise it would stick straight out and look dumb.

I love that the lining is fuchsia. It's like a dirty little secret only I (and everyone else who reads this) know.



So, my summary on this pattern is as follows: I learned new techniques (I had never worked with piping before, nor had I ever done pick stitching), I love the details, and I feel like I accomplished something by sewing this up. The cons are this: as with so many projects, I picked lame fabric that wears weird (BUT, it WAS on sale, so...), and the fit of the skirt is stupid around the tummy.



Once I figure out the button issue, I will post photos of the suit with me in it. In the meantime, I've been working on Vogue 1086, and was able to fight my naturally lazy nature and actually rip out stitches where I had made some (a lot of) mistakes. Yeah, I'm pretty proud of myself for that.

Vogue 1086-A Do Over

Rarely do people post of their failings, but today I am going to do just that. Over a year ago I posted about a pattern I was really excited to sew up. I called it cuteness in dress form. And it really is.

I love this pattern. As soon as I received it, TC and I ran out to find the right fabric. We settled on a red cotton. Let me interrupt this admission of guilt by explaining that my parents instilled in me a very deep sense of "If you aren't going to do it right, there's no sense in doing it at all." My mom has the patience of a saint and will sew and resew something until she gets it just right.

Well, with this project I decided to ignore all that was instilled in me. I sewed it up, tried to fudge the v in back and front, was sloppy in trimming edges, cut corners (figuratively) wherever I could, and paid little attention to the instructions.


This was the result.

It looks pretty normal, right? Well here comes the part where I reveal my secrets.

Like the white trim at the bottom? That was necessary because I didn't bother to check the length before I cut everything out, and once I was ready to hem the dress I realized I didn't have any room to hem it without the length shrinking to an uncomfortable length. My solution: finish the edge with bias tape. Instead of going out and buy some in a coordinating color, I lazily opted to use whatever I had on hand: white. Contrast is good right?

Even with the non-hem, the dress borders on too-short for comfort, and does not allow for free movement, like anything other than standing up completely straight is a bit revealing.

The v neck in the front looks okay here. On, it has an odd gape to it. *shrug* I felt too lazy to do any investigation into how to fix that so it remained. Also, you can see that my top stitching is uneven and messy.

Take a look at that bulge of fabric at the back neckline. Messy, unsightly, but I couldn't be bothered to fix it.

And the crowning jewel is this: The pattern called for French seams, which was a new technique for me. French seams require you to sew each seam twice: once wrong sides together, trim, then sew right sides together, effectively encasing the raw edge so on the inside everything is nice and neat. Well, I got lazy having to do each seam twice, so I decided to cut out a step: I didn't trim the fabric after the first stitch, which means that some of the raw edge is sticking out of the outside seam. Those little threads you see there? My laziness showing through.

So I've decided that I love this pattern too much to let it go without another fight. So I've decided to sew it again, but this time avoiding the laziness-induced pitfalls I encountered last time.

I'm sewing it up in a white eyelet fabric. I'm going for a summer sweet look. 

My laziness is not completely cured, however. Part of the reason I chose this eyelet is that it has a finished edge, which means I would not have to hem the dress. It's pre-hemmed for me. 

I'll let you know how my do over goes.