Monday 5 December 2011

Vogue 8728 Indulgence dress

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Although Deadline December is breathing down my neck, I indulged in a little selfish sewing. I had cut out my next Vogue 8728 for Frocktober from a venerable Liberty Tana Lawn and was itching to sew it all through Not-for-me-November.
I like it, but not as much as my grey linen version.
The Liberty lawn is wonderful to sew, and beautifully cool to wear, but I think my younger self was more enthralled with getting Liberty for a bargain price (Lincraft Brisbane City selling off all their Liberty stock - so you can tell how old it is!) than the actual print.
I have used this print before. I rather foolishly made myself a luxurious loose front buttoning blouse as a nursing top. When this became inedibly (and inevitably) stained, the shirt was very young, so I kept the unstained back the sleeves for a future project, along with the metre and a half of unused fabric. This is why the print of this dress is upside down - I had to use the blouse pieces upside down to fit in the width of the cut on almost sleeves at the back.
I made a few small changes to this version of the pattern.
The deliberate change was to underline the waistband with cotton organdy. A non deliberate change was that I somehow seem to have enlarged the vertical dimensions of the waist at the same time, leading to billowing, which is not present in the grey linen version.
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Naturally I only discovered this enlargement after I had piped the waistband and inserted the invisible zipper - another deliberate change (I loved Sherry's piped waistline detail in her 50's red spotty frock). Next time I will be measuring this section twice. This time I am just leaving it because no one will notice except for all the sewing blog readers ;)

12 comments:

Gail said...

January Jones eat your heart out. Your dress is perfect for you and I particularly like the piping at the waistline. Well done you!

Carolyn said...

A gorgeous print, and a very very pretty dress! Perfectly lovely!

liza jane said...

Very pretty! And that blue wall is fabulous. Great picture spot.

Julie Culshaw said...

The dress is lovely. I particularly like the details you add, that piping is beautiful.

Katharina said...

I really love this romantic version of this dress on you! However most gathered-skirt-dresses i see look rather bulky and unflattering. But yours are always a winner.
Is there a trick how you keep them pretty? For example choose of fabric, amount of gathers, pressing etc.?

Sheryll said...

This is so so pretty, and looks very flattering on you!
I wonder if the piping has taken out some width (cloth allowance and all that) and is forcing the bust seam to sit slightly lower?
Oh, and I don't notice any upside down print at all!

Mary Nanna said...

so lovely - and such a great design for you. So pleased your liberty made it out of stash. I'm still sewing from that deceased estate sale and it is a travesty all that fabric never got its day.

Speaking of not getting its day, I am thrilled to see you found a way to upcycle (actually I hate that word but well, hey it does have a use) your daughter's smocked dress. Now it would be a real travesty to let a good piece of smocking unworn.

Actually it's quite amazing how the dress is essentially still the same but with a few simple details is transformed. It just goes to show the power of the little things to either lift, or kill, a basic shape.

velosews said...

It's a really pretty dress. I love the print and the style.

Joy said...

This is the loveliest dress, and perfect for you. I love the fabric and the piping, too. You tempt me to search for the pattern, but my practical side knows it wouldn't look the same on me (:

fabric epiphanies said...

A pretty girly dress. I really like the piping.

Thank you for your comments on my dress.

Janine said...

another beautiful rendition of this pattern - I love it but unfortunately this pattern would not suit me ( I am a so called sunken treasure in the upper department. ) Sewing with tana lawn is such a delight isn`t it.

Gay McDonell said...

Such a pretty pretty dress against that blue background especially!