I made myself a dress!!! I was very excited when I finished the dress and horrified when I finally tried it on. I haven't blogged about it yet because I had to re-take pictures of me wearing it and I never really wore it again after I realized how frumpy it made me look.
I bought Vogue 1236 a year ago and I intended to sew it to hide the baby weight, but I never got around to sewing it. I'm sure it'd do the job well in the future but who wants to look big when they already feel big after having a baby (did I tell you I gained 65lbs during my pregnancy)?
Last summer when I saw this pattern, I loved the dress in the picture and I thought I'd make one similar (with seersucker striped fabric). I shopped for seersucker fabric but I never found any (in store or online) that I loved so I waited (and waited). I finally decided to give up and buy red stripe seersucker fabric, and while reading the yardage requirements on the pattern I noticed that it also said chambray as a suggested fabric. I had enough chambray in my fabric stash so I used that instead of buying seersucker.
The pattern was simple with few steps and the dress came together easily (although I did add a few steps of my own). I serged all my raw edges because the chambray fabric I used is thin and frail. The pattern instructions say to overcast part of the shoulder seam (and the belt) where the opening was left, but I didn't want to do that so I top stitched close to the edge of the shoulder and arm hole area. My top stitching closed the opening and helped keep my facing down. I used feather weight interfacing but it refused to lay nicely on the inside of the dress(and if I bend over you can see down my dress, eek!). I didn't add the lingerie snaps or the belt hoops because I didn't think they were important.
If I was to make this dress again I would shorten the straps and try it without interfacing, I'm petite (barely 5' 1") and the arm hole dropped down too much and shows off my bra. I'm not sure what I'll do with the dress because I think it looks like a poofy disaster on me. The combination of the material and the cut just don't do me any favors. The moral of this story is don't rely on pattern pictures because they use models (who are tall and tend not to look short and frumpy in things!). Also, make a muslin first and save money to buy a dress form!
I bought Vogue 1236 a year ago and I intended to sew it to hide the baby weight, but I never got around to sewing it. I'm sure it'd do the job well in the future but who wants to look big when they already feel big after having a baby (did I tell you I gained 65lbs during my pregnancy)?
Last summer when I saw this pattern, I loved the dress in the picture and I thought I'd make one similar (with seersucker striped fabric). I shopped for seersucker fabric but I never found any (in store or online) that I loved so I waited (and waited). I finally decided to give up and buy red stripe seersucker fabric, and while reading the yardage requirements on the pattern I noticed that it also said chambray as a suggested fabric. I had enough chambray in my fabric stash so I used that instead of buying seersucker.
The pattern was simple with few steps and the dress came together easily (although I did add a few steps of my own). I serged all my raw edges because the chambray fabric I used is thin and frail. The pattern instructions say to overcast part of the shoulder seam (and the belt) where the opening was left, but I didn't want to do that so I top stitched close to the edge of the shoulder and arm hole area. My top stitching closed the opening and helped keep my facing down. I used feather weight interfacing but it refused to lay nicely on the inside of the dress
If I was to make this dress again I would shorten the straps and try it without interfacing, I'm petite (barely 5' 1") and the arm hole dropped down too much and shows off my bra. I'm not sure what I'll do with the dress because I think it looks like a poofy disaster on me. The combination of the material and the cut just don't do me any favors. The moral of this story is don't rely on pattern pictures because they use models (who are tall and tend not to look short and frumpy in things!). Also, make a muslin first and save money to buy a dress form!
