Vintage Vogue 2787—Done at Last

Where to begin?  If I were given a sewing word association test, part of it
would go like this:

Analyst: "Vintage Vogue 2787"
Me: "Shoulder pad nightmare."

And indeed it was, but more about that later.

Once I found the proper shoulder pad solution I came to love this dress. I really like the S-curve down the front with the asymmetrical gathers (ruching?) I'm all about asymmetry, so I enjoyed putting the bodice together. I wish I would have shortened the torso about an inch, but live and learn.

Finally--something to wear with my impulse buy  silver heels.

The simple darted back has a six-button closure--there was an option for a 7 inch zipper closure, but I enjoy making button loops--and  a side lapped zipper. I apologize for the glare--this fabric resists proper photography by reflecting the flash, no matter what angle I approach it from.

Originally I wasn't wild about the super high neckline, which isn't especially flattering on me, but it gives the dress a kind of cool almost Asian-inspired look, so I've made my peace with it.

The back is simple and fit well.

The fabric is a buttery soft polyester charmeuse that I got from Vogue Fabrics.  If this dress had been a miserable failure, I would have ordered more of this fabric and made it into something else.

And now onto the shoulder pads. There were instructions to make shoulder pads, which I did,

but they didn't work with the charmeuse. I mean they really didn't work. Below is a photo of the dress with the shoulder pad I eventually used and the pad that I made from the pattern instructions.

You can't see it, but the fabric kind of rolls under the awkward shoulder. I thought maybe that pad needed nudged out closer to the end of the shoulder. This is what happens when I did that.

That now amplified roll is not the end of the shoulder pad. It formed from the way the fabric draped after I nudged the pad out. I then pushed the pad farther in and if anything it looked worse--like I had a growth in the middle of my shoulder. I tried all the ready-made pads I had laying around, positioning them this way and that, and the only ones that worked were the raglan pads shown in the comparison photo above.

So why didn't I just use those pads? Because they are expensive lambswool (I think) pads I bought for a light wool jacket I cut out late last winter and then stored away once the sun started shining. I bought the pads at Britex--about 500 miles away--and didn't want to deal with mail ordering another set and paying postage, or even trying to figure out which ones they were (I should mention that I cannot buy shoulder pads in my town--we are a shoulder-padless society here) so I decided to make my own.

I drafted a pattern,

cut it out of fleece batting

sewed it together

The first of the two inner layers

and came up with a reasonable facsimile. And (get this!) these shoulder pads cost a grand total of $0.77! Yes, seventy-seven cent shoulder pads saved the day. Now I can make my wool jacket as soon as the temps drop below 90 degrees.

Original pad on left. Mine on the right.

Here are a few more dress photos:

This last photo is me gearing up for the new school year. Here I am demonstrating a low-voltage teacher death ray.

Pretty effective, eh?

And that's it for Vintage Vogue 2787.

Back from Conference

At the Harlequin book signing event.

The Writing
I've just returned from the Romance Writers of American National Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, energized and ready to write. I think the most valuable thing I took from this conference--other than a warm glow from meeting up with friends and professionals in the writing industry that I see once a year, and attending the awesome Harlequin party--was the feeling that I'm ready to stretch my wings a little. I'm going to try some free writing with no particular audience in mind and see where it takes me. And I'm also going to work on the book due in September because time is slipping away. As I see it, I have at least three weeks of solid writing before I have to think about getting ready for the school year, and I plan on those weeks being productive.

The Sewing
I only took one dress that I made to conference. I had mighty plans to bring several, but due to many circumstances, most of which had to do with me
messing up, I only had one dress and jacket that felt conference worthy.

I made New Look 6514 out of an Italian cotton remnant I brought at Britex in San Francisco and lined it in poly cotton. The cotton was wonderful to work with, but it did tend to wrinkle easily, so I packed a can of spray sizing for the trip. Problem solved, even if the can added quite a bit of weight to an already heavy suitcase.

The construction of this dress was very straight forward. I cut the bodice pieces out separately so that I could match the design across the front and back. I'm especially pleased with the back--there's a zipper in there!

The zipper installation is different that any I've done before. The center back seam is not basted shut. The right hand side of the dress is pressed under 1/2 inch and the zipper is sewn to the fold.

The left side is done is two steps--one below the waist and one above.

Here's the below the waist area. I used tape to mark the stitch line and top stitched on the outside.

Then I did the same for the bodice.

I just love cellophane tape.

Instead of facings I fully lined the dress. I didn't want to make facings on top of the lining, due to bulk, so I cut facings out of fusible interfacing and fused them to the bodice lining:

I accidentally got the perfect amount of stability using this method. Yay! 

And now the reveal! Here I am in my natural habitat, where I wouldn't normally wear a white cotton dress:

And guess what? I'm going all matchy-matchy. Yes. I'm carrying a patent purse with patent shoes because I've decided that I like matching.

This is the red jacket I made out of the fabric I'd bought to make a different jacket.

 I didn't wear the jacket at Nationals. It will be the subject of a future blog--The Tale of Two Red Jackets.

I'd like to mention that my skirt is suitably poofy due to the layer cake crinoline I made using Gertie's excellent instructions which you can find here.

It really does a nice job of giving the skirt some body. I did discover, though, that if one uses poly organdy, one should wear another slip under it. Poly organdy is not skin friendly.

And here I am at conference in my dress. I wish my camera would have cooperated, but it didn't. You probably get the idea, though.

An lastly, this has nothing to do with this post, but this is the cute and fearless little night hawk that sleeps on my husband's folded lawn chair during the day. I just love him.

Really Retro

I planned to write a blog or two about sewing Victorian costumes closer to the time of The Great Dickens Christmas Fair, (counting the days!) however, my husband did a photo shoot with two members of our Dicken's team in historic Virginia City and Gold Hill, Nevada, this past weekend, so I thought I'd share photos.

I'm pleased so say that I made everything worn in these photos with the exception of the gentleman's puffer tie and the hats. It was a lot of work, but it was also a lot of fun. I spent quite a few hours in my sewing lair watching reruns of Simon and Simon as I sewed last fall.

I like making gentlemen's clothing. The coat and vest are from Simplicity 2895. I employed some techniques not included in the instructions, and when I make my third coat this fall, I'll blog about how I stray from pattern instructions.The shirt is Laughing Moon #107 and the pants are Laughing Moon #106. Both are historically accurate garments.

The Sherlock cape is Simplicity 2517 .

The lady's dress is Simplicity 1818. It was a lot easier to make than the frock coats. 

Here are some more Virginia City shots:

This one is  my favorite:

And, this is what happens when your models grow weary of  wearing layers of brocade and wool and taffeta in 90 degree weather...

I hope you enjoyed the photos. I'm looking forward to blogging about Victorian costumes this fall.

Vogue 1136: And In This Corner…

Raise your hand if you've ever had a  simple project
beat the crud out of you. At this moment my hand is high in the air. I really like Vogue 1136, but I don' think it likes me.

I made a muslin of this dress that, honest to goodness, fit. Or at least I thought it fit. Perhaps I forgot to do a full back view, deeming a look over my shoulder to be sufficient. Whatever happened, I'll never know because I tossed the muslin (after all, it fit so well) during a sewing room cleaning frenzy.

Vogue 1136 went together well. I love the fabric, love the way it handles and drapes. Unfortunately, it's not supposed to be draped in the back.

Yes, this is what the back of my dress looked like. I asked my husband what he thought. He said it was a bit...folded. Yes, indeed. The front looked better, but it was obviously too large. Out came the seam ripper.

Being a scientist, I know to change only one variable at a time. There were problems with both width and length of the bodice, so I decided to tackle the length issue first and then the side seams.

First I stabbed pins into Tillie, my unpaid assistant, to hold the waist of the dress and upper part of the strap bands in place.

 I released the bodice from the bands in the back...

And then adjusted the strap bands so that they fit smoothly over Tillie's back. I trimmed off the excess corners and basted the bands in place.

I then folded the bodice along what would be a new seam line, to take some of the extra fabric out of the bodice. The waist pins kept me from taking out too much. Once I had a new seam line, I basted and sewed. Next I did a late in the game sway back adjustment and the back fit much better.

After that, I took--get this--a full inch (half an inch on each side) out of the side seams at the armpits, tapering to the waist, which fit. Of course, this involved taking out the zipper and putting it back in again.

Essentially, when I was finished, I'd made the dress more than a full size smaller from armpits to waist. I've never had to do that before. It makes me wonder if my butt is getting bigger or my top smaller. Something to ponder in the wee hours for certain.

I do have a slight adjustment to make at the hips, because I'm getting a bit of a ripple from extra fabric there (which answers the question I just posed, I guess), but I don't have the heart to tackle it just yet. It'd be easier and more fun to just gain a little weight.

My pattern pose is at the top of the post, so here's my out take.

It kind of sums up the experience I had making this dress, but I think I won and I really like the dress. Just as in a good romance novel, sometimes the protagonists need to wrangle a bit before they live happily ever after.