VOGUE 1257

My Last Finished Garment of 2011!

This is Vogue 1257, which I blogged about HERE.
It was a disturbing pattern in the way that it was designed, but I worked my way around it as follows:

After carefully reading the reviews on Pattern Review, I decided, since I already had the pattern and I already had the fabric, to plunge forward, even though brave seamstresses before me advised against it. But I had the pattern, and I had the fabric.

This dress has a very interesting construction, and had I known that, I probably would have never gotten the pattern.  The bodice/sleeve are all one piece, but only in the front. It’s the wonkiest thing I’ve ever seen, but what this means is that the sleeve, because it’s cut across the grain, ends up being very, very, very tight.

The instructions also clearly state that this is intended for a 2-way knit. I had gray ponte. So there you go. Ponte is NOT a two way knit.

AB Canada decided to cut the bodice/sleeve cross grain, which would give the sleeve more stretch. I tried that, and it was still waaaaaaaay too tight, and I didn’t have the energy or desire to figure out how to add a verysubstantial sleeve gusset like another reviewer did.  I thought about that sleeve all night, and then it hit me…

Duh…just cut the dang thing off and draft a  new, normal sleeve.

So that’s just what I did.  I used another dress pattern which had a similar bodice and a long sleeve option. I lined up that pattern on my existing bodice pieces and cut out a new arm hole,  and then cut a new separate sleeve. Easy peasy.

The dress then becomes a pretty basic piece to construct, and a great basic for my wardrobe!  So, there will be one more project off the list!

And, to top it off, I really, really like this dress! It was worth every bit of modification, and I  loved wearing it to work this week.