Permission to sew silk. Vogue 8728 dress the third

I was quite taken with Carolyn's comment concerning rewarding oneself (with special fabric naturally) for using burdensome stash, particularly as I was thinking the same thing myself after my excursion into stash busting. Why merely have a thrifty halo for making scrappy placemants when you could have a silk dress from the same stash?

Here is another Vogue 8728,
a pattern truly worthy of my nicest fabric, demonstrating that I can sew with silk, provided that it is well behaved thin silk broadcloth of an age that prevents me remembering the price(and thereby paralysing my scissors).
I thoroughly enjoyed sewing this dress. I took it very slowly, finishing the seams with binding (Liberty at the shoulders and self fabric at the side seams),

adding lingerie straps (bias tubes with snap fasteners) during construction and finishing the silk organza waist lining by hand so that there were no exposed messy edges.

I also finished the shoulder/sleeve hems with the tiniest-possible-for-me rolled hems by hand (thanks Sherry, for your excellent tutorial, but don't look too closely at my stitching) so that the dress would not look exactly like my other two, having a slightly more fluttery and longer sleeve.

I used self piping at the waist insert again, this time lengthening the upper bodice by 1cm first, which dramatically improved the fit in comparison to the Liberty lawn version (thanks again Sherry, for the constructive comment).

I finished the hem by hand, a project that added another week to the construction of my dress and in my opinion looks no better than using the machine blind hem - due no doubt to my lack of skill.
I was also waiting for fabulous photos of this dress on me, just like I am waiting for this to happen with my leather jacket,but decided my posting would become very scanty if I was to insist on fabulous photos for every project (or maybe any project).
I think it looks pretty good in real life, and you will just have to take my word for it after viewing the vaguely representative photo at the top of the post.

Mary Nanna has challenged me to make a wool coat. She probably did not know she was doing this, by merely mentioning the limp wristedness of Auckland quality winters, but I have taken it that way. Surely everyone who lives in the subtropics should make a wool coat in high summer? They should knit a wool blanket too......Maybe another silk dress would be a better idea. I am taking my husband out to lunch this Friday in honour of the first one. It needs an outing.

Vogue 8728 Indulgence dress

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.

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 ;)

Vogue 8728 reproduction 1946 dress

My third "new" dress pattern is a new favourite.



I was inspired to buy this pattern by Erin at A Dress a Day. Despite her many posts about her lovely versions of the pattern I was a little worried about the possible bustiness and underarm exposure, which she talks about here and there in relation to this frock. The pattern calls for under 3m of fabric, and I thought it was worth a try.
I made the above version of the dress in a lightweight linen, in an oxford weave of pink in one direction and dark grey in the other, from Michael's Fabrics. I received this as part of a Zegna bundle I purchased in 2009. Lightweight linen is one of the recommended fabrics on the pattern envelope. I found it perfect for the pattern, and used less than 3m, making the skirt from one x 148cm width.
I don't think the dress looks too buxom (D). I did not make a FBA, and despite leaving out the shoulder pads (and not making my usual square shoulder adjustment), I do not find the armhole too deep. I turned the "sleeve" hem in further than instructed and assure you that no underwear became visible in the process.

I had considered using silk jersey for the dress (another recommended fabric on the pattern envelope) and made a trial version using possibly the worst fabric I have ever received over the internet,

(beware of that butterfly print knit and the stripey knit, they are AWFUL)
an alleged cotton/lycra knit from Fabric.com, which was about the same weight as light silk jersey, but had no discernable recovery. I got what I paid for, at about $4 per yard. Fortunately the wovens I received in the same package, at much higher prices, are far superior fabrics.


These are the "will I bother making this dress in real fabric" photos. I started with a size 12, according to my high bust measurement, and the awful knit version is large and droopy at the bust, back and waist. I decided not to start with a knit version, but to try a size 10 for the bodice and waist in the linen, which was another trial fabric, as it is not a colour I usually wear. I threw out the remaining butterfly knit. I did not think it would even make a good cleaning rag.

Going from the no-recovery knit to the linen, my sizing changes were not entirely smooth. After going down a size I then had to let out the waist a little by sewing skinny seams and adding bias binding for zipper attachment, but otherwise the fit was very good. I will taper out to a 12 at the waist for a woven, should I make this again, but a 10 would probably be OK in a knit (one size smaller than envelope measurements suggest)

I underlined the front waist with silk organza, another inspiration from A Dress A Day.

I sewed the upper and lower bodice right sides together and topstitched rather than overlapping as in the instructions.
I used a regular zip in the side seam, hand sewn, as per the instructions. I don't think this looks terrific, I will use an invisible zip next time.
I bound the armscye/sleeve hems as suggested, before topstitching, but found that this made the hems stick out from the arms.

I rolled them under by hand and used an invisible stitch to finish.
I overcast stitched by hand to reinforce the bottoms of the armscye, and the top of the side zip opening.

I have cut out another one. I am breaking into the Liberty - I must really like this pattern.