Vogue 1102

This was my third dress this year. I thought I’d try something different and a bit more of a challenge. The first pattern I used was “very easy” and this was “easy”.

I found this on the vogue website and decided to give it a whirl:

Although it was a lot more material than the other dresses I’d made the sales assistant at Centrepoint Fabric thought it wouldn’t be too hard. So I decided to go for it.

The assistant was very helpful. She suggested I choose a wool crepe. This meant that unlike the model photo my dress turned out more flowy and less stiff. I really like the way that skirt and bodice turned out on my dress but was a little disappointed that the bow didn’t stand up as well as in the photo.

Here are some photos:

I really like the way that this dress turned out to have lots of shape as well as being really comfortable and loose-fitting.

And I think the bow is really cute:

On a side note I thought that if was going to take up sewing seriously then I should measure myself properly. I was surprised to realise that I was a 12 or 14 for bust and waist measurements. However I ended up taking in 2 cm on each side of the bodice waist, tapering off as I got to the arm hole and adjusting the skirt to side seams to match – so there! I wonder if anyone else has found vogue sizes to be quite ungenerous?

Church Op-Shop Patterns

I went to the beach a couple of weeks ago and stopped off at a Church Op-Shop on the way. All the patterns were 50c so I went a bit crazy.

Here are the ones I bought:

Butterick 6013 – I liked this one because it looked like a simple skirt that could be worn to work or casually. I’m not a big fan of elasticated waistbands buy if I wore it with a belt I think it’d look fine. Also it looks quite easy to make as it only has three pieces – ideal!

Simplicity 5511 – I thought these looked cute. I particularly like view 1 (kakhi) with the rolled up look.

Butterick 6944 – I really liked this dress when I first saw it. I particularly liked view c (the red and white checkered one). However when I looked closer I saw that it has a zipper front. Not so sure about that. A friend suggested putting buttons down the front instead – not sure if my skill level is quite up to changing patterns yet!

Vogue 7101 – This was such a find! When I opened this one up I discovered that it hadn’t been used before! I’m quite looking forward to making view A (left) as I love the high waisted look and it has pockets – perfection!

Simplicity 7071 – I know this one is a bit “out of the box” but at 50 c I thought why not? I thought I could make view 2 (middle) in some nice floral material or view 4 (far right) in flanel as birthday presents for my sisters.

Simplicity 7759 & 7702 – These were definately the tow patterns I was the most excited to make. However they also turned out to missing heaps of pieces. I probably shouldn’t have expected too much considering the state of their envelopes…

McCall’s 6201 – Navy & White Print

I was really pleased with how my navy dress turned out so I decided to branch out and try making view A (capped sleeves) out of a navy and white printed fabric. Ok I admit it wasn’t branching out very far…

Here’s how it looked:

I’m really glad I took my sister’s advise and made a special effort to line up the pattern down the middle of the front!

After a day when I had attempted to run in my Navy dress (and couldn’t!) I decided to edit the pattern a little and not sew the back seam the whole way down. Instead I left about 10- 15 cm at the bottom which I reinforced. I found this much better as it was for more comfortable whilst keeping the shape of the skirt.

When I finished this dress I had a thought that I’d like to make this view (A) again but this time in a wool or tweed fabric so that it could be a winter dress. With any luck it might look something like this:

Found at: austinreed.co.uk

Or perhaps I could do it in forest/ khaki green. It still summer here so lots of time to think about it.

McCalls 6201 – Navy

This was the first dress that I made this year. I made a couple of dresses years ago (including a disasterous attempt at making my older sister’s 6th form ball dress) and have decided to take it up again.

I thought this pattern looked easy and like something I’d actually wear:

I made view E (the one the model is wearing)

I decided to make it in Navy blue because I thought any mistakes that I made would be less obvious with darker material (and I really like navy!)

Here it is:

 

I made it in a 10 but it was a bit tight across my hips. I think next time I’ll have a go at combining sizes and keep the 10 for the top half and a 12 at the waist/ hips. Need to work out how to do that first though! Any tips welcome.

 

Here are some detail shots:

 

I love the pleated shoulder seams on this dress.

 

I like a scooped neckline, they are flattering on anyone.

 

All in all I was very pleased with my first piece of sewing this year!

Credits: Thank you Charlotte for taking the photos!