Thursday, January 28, 2016

Made! - Vogue 8181

I finished this dress just before the blizzard last weekend. We got a mammoth 25-30 inches!

Luckily, though, we have really cool neighbors and we all decided that since we weren't going anywhere else, we might as well trek to each other's houses for dinner. Hooray for friendship!

No available photo partners = mirror in the dining room

I used the motif as the marker for the hemline.
And no, I did not trek through all that snow wearing this dress, but I look forward to wearing it soon!

The pattern is Vogue 8181, View A, with shortened sleeves.  There was concern that the long sleeves would be uncomfortable while playing, so I opted for elbow-length instead.


The material was purchased in Costa Rica, and I love it. It's a warm-toned motif on thick black ponte with great recovery, no fraying, and no slippage. And will you look at the print alignment? It worked out so well! :::Toots own horn:::
I'm pointing to the empire waist seam.

Can you spot the back waist seam???


Topstitch using narrow zip-zag
Unpretty but supportive
This pattern has underarm gussets, a feature that I don't come across often, but find very comfortable.  I topstitched them for strength, and inserted them one seam at a time rather than following the pattern's direction to pin all four seams at once. (Made that mistake when I sewed this dress the first time a few years ago. Ya know, before I started to trust my own sewing brain.) 

Without question I'll be making this pattern again. I love everything about it, even if I did have to lengthen at the true waist and the empire waist to get a good fit!

Proud Insides

I used some grossgrain ribbon I had on hand as a way to stabilize the raised waist seam. Hooray for using what's lying around instead of buying things!



I also serged all the seams, and hand-tacked the neckline facing to the bodice all the way around rather than letting it flop about.  



Working with this fabric was such a lovely experience. I have only a little bit left over and have no clue what to do with it but can't bring myself to get rid of it.  I was thinking a bandeau or sports bra...stay tuned.

I hope all of you are staying warm out there! Our temps are higher than normal this week, hanging out between 20-40 degrees. Good thing this dress will layer well with tights, a jacket, and warm boots!

Lastly, here's a close-up of the shoes. :)