Wrap it up: Vogue 8379 Detail

Thanks everyone for your super nice comments on my red wrap dress that I briefly posted yesterday! Here are some details.


Twin needle stitching, I love thee...

I've been wanting to make this dress for a while, since it's an SPR pattern of the year and now "hall of fame" pattern. I bought it last year, and then I saw the Selfish Seamstress's version of it a few months ago and was like, I have to make it! I wanted to make it pretty much like hers, black knit with the collar and sleeves (albeit, short sleeves).

I started out making a muslin of the bodice using some ugly gray stash fabric, because I was pretty sure I'd have to do a SBA, but then the muslin seemed totally fine so I didn't do the SBA.


Really crummy picture of the muslin--I could have draped it nicer on the table, huh? The pleats look better in real life. And I didn't have enough to do the front skirt so I just did the back skirt for testing the swayback adjustment...

So lately I've been doing this thing of cutting out a few pieces at a time and then sewing them up, then cutting out some more, sewing them up, etc, instead of cutting them all out at once--but I had been laying all pieces out. So this time I didn't do that with the real fabric. I cut and sewed the pleats on the bodice but when it was time to cut out the ties, er, I realized I didn't have enough fabric for the skirt (though now that I know I cut off several inches from the skirt, I might have enough...)

So I had lunch and regrouped and decided to find some stash fabric that was enough. That's how it became red. and then I decided I didn't want sleeves after all, and if it doesn't have sleeves, I thought it shouldn't have a collar either, because I generally don't like wearing sleeveless shirts with collars. And many SPR reviewers said they didn't like the facings, so I skipped those and just folded the fabric over instead of doing any proper binding treatment.

And I didn't like how full the skirt was, so I narrowed it down a bit. I did the swayback adjustment too. If I had known that all I had to do was fold the tissue paper a bit I would have done it years ago (I thought it was going to be really complicated?) I used the midriff piece from McCall's 5752 that I made last weekend as a guide, since it had the swayback adjustment printed on it.


What I chopped off down the side; you can sort of see the swayback adjustment (click on photo to see my Flickr notes)


Look! No horizontal lines on the skirt!!
I cut the back on the fold of the fabric, accounting for the seam allowance. It didn't make sense to me to have a seam going up the back of the skirt.

Then it just seemed too long so I chopped some inches off the bottom and hemmed.


So it looks good standing up, but when I sit down there is some gaposis going on. So I might do a snap at the cross to keep things in place. It would have benefited from an SBA after all, so I learned a valuable lesson--it's good to sit with my muslin on (I had only stood in it and leaned forward in it). Also, the weight of the skirt is pretty heavy, as this is a substantial double knit. So I think that hanging it in my closet will just stretch out the bodice, making the gaposis worse. So this will be shoved, I mean folded, in a drawer. (I *need* to clean my closet and dresser out soon!)



I'm also really not sure what to do with the pleats. They are basted down which means I should remove the basting but I'm a little afraid to do so.

I wrapped the ties around my body, so one of them winds up being shorter than the other. I might fix that.

armpit shot...


As for the black knit bodice that's "in progress", I'm thinking of "frankenpatterning" (Trena's term--love it!) it with the midriff and skirt from McCall's 5752. I think it will work. and then I will have three unique dresses: McCall's 5752, Vogue 8379, and their chimeric lovechild.


I finished Pain Free for Life by Scott Brady today. I highly recommend, as this goes beyond John Sarno's Mind Over Back Pain book because it has a strategy and 6 week plan, and also talks about how to talk to your back (which is really your subconscious). Plus Pain Free for Life covers any chronic condition, not just back pain!! So if you suffer from IBS, fibromyalgia, neck pain, migraines, psoriasis, or any other chronic condition for which docs just can't seem to help you with, get yourself to the library and read it now! I liked it so much, I'm going to buy it!

Good night!