I didn’t really mean to do any sewing on Saturday. I jut thought I should take a quick peek at the fabric to make sure I had enough, next thing I knew it was several hours later and I had a new dress!
I bought this fabric at John Lewis, it’s a fine viscose knit and I like the colour (they also had it in grey and red so I may go back to get some more). The pattern is Vogue 1250 which seems to be a bit of a best seller. It’s certainly easy, only three pieces and five seams.
I was a bit uncertain about the sizing as although the packet puts me as a 14 I have found in the past that I often have to tweak things to a slightly smaller size and I wasn’t sure how to do that with so few seams. So, being a bit anal I traced the size 12 onto a bit of paper and then cut a toile in the 14. The toile was fine and I went ahead and made the 14.
I thought the fabric in the toile was sufficiently similar to my fashion fabric to give me a good idea as to how the final dress would fit, however I now think I perhaps should have made a 12 after all. It’s not so huge that it isn’t wearable but it is a little looser than I would have expected.
I will be making another one of these because I had two problems. First of all, ‘fess up time, I completely misunderstood the cutting instructions. It did occur to me that cutting the dress across the grain seemed a bit odd but as I’ve had very little experience of working with knits I went ahead and did it any way – on both the toile and the final dress. It was only last night that suddenly it came to me that where the layout said selvedge it meant the horizontal line not the vertical line. I don’t know what impact this will have in the longer term, particularly as the fabric has a two-way stretch. Secondly I had problems with the hems which in places look slightly stretched. I’m not sure anyone else would notice but it’s not perfect!
Anyway nice dress, very quick to make but a few problems with the construction which can be ironed out next time.
(hmmm – perhaps ditch the black opaques in future)
Jane's Sew & Tell 