Vogue 1015 - Putting It Together PT II

Fabric and Notions: crepe back satin, ambiance lining, 18" zipper, emerald seed beads, fusible interfacing.




Friday night I spent about 45 minutes making the pattern adjustment.


On Saturday, the majority of the day was spent working on the dress.

From 12-3p I cut the dress out of the fashion fabric. All adjustments were included except shortening the length of the dress.

Note: If you plan to make this dress, patience is needed with the layout and cutting. There are a lot of pieces to this dress. Many require only one of the fabric and/or lining. Several pieces are very large and require the joining of two pattern pieces to make one piece to sew. Be sure not to allow the fabric to hang over the edge of the cutting table. It pulls the fabric that is on the table and distorts the width and length.

Skirt #8 is used to cut the lining and outer fabric. Each has to be cut separately. Be careful, the grain lines are different and some of the cutting lines are different.


From 3 to 10p I worked on putting the dress together. The front bodice pieces and the side/front skirt are to be cut on varying degrees of bias. On a piece of scrap, I tested sewing with a sharp 11 and universal 11 needles. Neither produced good stitches on the crepe back satin. So I tried a Singer ball point 11. It worked just fine.

The pattern called for an invisible zipper. I didn't have one on hand and wanted to complete as much work as possible. So I hand-picked a regular zipper. I decided to wait for Ms. CB's approval before adding the beads. She liked the idea.










My Struggle: Pattern #8 is joined at the center back then it comes together at the front where all the pleats and gathers meet. I read the instructions, looked at the illustrations, and made several attempts at joining the pieces. At each failed attempt the skirt, pleats, and gathers looked wonky. This pattern/dress had truly worked my nerves. So I decided to go back to the original pattern. There it was as clear as day. I forgot to mark the square where the skirt attaches to the side bodice. It all made sense now. I marked the square and everything went together.




Dislike: The instructions only shows how the godet and the front skirt come together on the wrong side. The only right side view is when the "cover up" rectangle is applied to the area.

I'm Almost There: All of the adjustments were incorporated into the pattern pieces before cutting.

The back view: More was needed across the back. I increased the back by 1 1/2 inches dividing the increase evenly among the four pieces.

From the second fitting - At the lower shoulder I needed to reduce by 1/4" on each side. Through the first 4 inches of the zipper (at side back seam) I need to let out by 1/4" and the release of the pins at the shoulders will take the stress off the zipper. Slight pulling in the upper part of the zipper.


The Straps need to be shorten by 3/4".

The front view: The bust darts were lowered, both pattern pieces. And 3/8" added to each side. The pleats were lowered as well. But I notices that the last one needs to be rotated a bit and moved up.






The Skirt - I added 1/4" to the seam allowances were multiple size adjustments are indicated. The skirt needs to be shorten by 2". This will be done at the very end because I want to make sure the strap adjustments are correct before cutting.

After these adjustments are made, I'll sew on the beads, add lining, and sew together the foundation. The flowers, leaves, and steams have not been cut yet. I'm saving that for last. When I arranged for the second fitting, I forgot to ask Ms. CB to bring foundation to be worn underneath. It will definitely impact the way the dress wears on the body and it will show any additional adjustments. I think we are good on the adjustments though, but I want to see the look of the dress with both foundations.

Next fitting -- After June 12th.

Stay Tuned...,