Vogue 8034 #2

This version of Vogue 8034 is made from silk charmeuse. This fabric is my oldest stash. My dad bought it for me in Hong Kong, just after I became engaged, so that I could make my wedding dress from it. He had an very generous opinion of my sewing skill! Fortunately I was more realistic, and also chronically short of time due to starting my intern year, so had my dress made for me (silk taffeta - about 7 metres), but the fabric has sentimental value. It is also very wrinkly due to long storage! I have been very cautious with the iron, but can see in the photos that I should have been more vigorous. The fabric has a lovely sheen, and the photos taken late on this overcast afternoon are not doing it justice.

 

 

I have fiddled a bit more with the pattern. The waist drape is now twice the depth of the stay, and this looks better, and more like the pattern illustration IMO. Because of the very stretchy bias, I also needed to remove over 5cm from the waist drape width in order to have it sit firmly over the waist stay. I had to trim the earlier version too, so I think this is an error in the pattern, not allowing sufficiently for the bias nature of the drape.
I did also add fabric to the shoulder drape, but was not happy with the appearance of the shoulders. In my previous version of this top, I quite like the extended shoulder effect, but this is not how the pattern is illustrated, and I wanted a more set- in shoulder so that I could later try the version with sleeves. To make the shoulder more like the illustration, first I trimmed 1.5 cm from the arm hole at the shoulders, tapering to nothing by the bottom of the armhole. After I finished the armhole, I gathered the shoulder and attached it on the inside to a stay made of selvage. The shoulder is still not quite like the illustration, but getting closer. However, gathering the shoulder and setting it in closer to the neck has given a small cowl effect at the back neck. This is fine with me on this version, but I will narrow the back neck on the next version. In retrospect, I could have cut a 10, rather than a 12, but as this size is not on my pattern, I am unlikely to draw out a smaller size.
I also think I should have thought more about the bias front drape. It has grown longer over the day, and gives a rather droopy effect at the bust. I should have hung up the cut out front for 24 hours before sewing it, then trimmed the piece to fit at the bottom. I will know better next time.