I think that I'm going to stop saying ahead of time what I'm going to make because it's a lot of pressure. And I feel like a loser when I don't finish lol I said that I was going to participate in the TMS MONOsewn challenge back in July... then August. It's almost October and I'm just now finishing lol. Lucky for me, September is Amnesty Month for the TMS Collective :-)
I got this white matte jersey fabric from Hancock Fabric's and I got the piping from the same place. The pattern is Vogue 1285, a Tracy Reese design. I'm pretty sure I cut the straight 10. I originally had a baby pink linen dress planned for this pattern until I realized that 1. It's for knits and 2. It's a faux wrap dress. How do I always end up with a FAUX wrap dress? lol
One thing I can say about this dress is that it is not extremely difficult.. unless you like to force difficulty on yourself like I do. I decided to add black piping in select seams and I did not follow the directions. Who do I think I am, right? I decided to ditch the belt loops and use the waist piping as the belt visually. I also did not make the slip that this pattern includes. Since I've worn it, I realize why it is needed, though. When I would sit down, that opening at the front opens up a little more than I'd like lol. My friend assured me that it didn't look as bad as I thought because I WAS looking from bird's eye view lol duh. I did wear a skirt slip though :-)
Because I didn't follow the directions, in order for me to have clean insides, I had to hand stitch (on the inside) the collars and the sleeve bands.
The reason why it took me so long to complete the dress is because I kept messing up! Well not ME so much as the fabric lol. First it started with the collar. The lower pieces went on great. Then when I went to attach the collar around the neck, one side was perfect and the other side was....
What in the world right?! Turns out there was like a whole extra 5/8" of unnecessary length on it. SUPER weird. I just cut it off the excess and reattached it and it was perfect! I'm SUPER happy about the way the collar came out. I ended up wearing it to my friend's fancy birthday dinner. The color scheme was white and gold so my mom let me borrow her extremely fancy earring/necklace set. The outfit ended being a hit so I'm happy.
THEN when I went to attach the piping to the wrap overlay, I realized that the line drawing wasn't what I thought. The place where I THOUGHT I was putting the piping was NOT a seam. I was to fold there and stitch down the attached strip. The piping would have been on the edge of the strip. Idk if that makes sense to you but I don't have the pics to explain. lol I had to remeasure and cut off some amount that I don't know the number up to get the piping to be where I wanted. Unfortunately I don't take pictures when I'm in "MAKE IT WORK" mode.
Oh and I also burned the strip when I was trying to iron it! *sheds single tear* Luckily I had cut and interfaced 2 although the instructions had only asked for one. #whenmistakesturnintoonpurpose
I really like the dress but I had a problem trying to finaggle the invisible zipper because of the piping. I ended up sewing the invisible zipper as close as I could get to the piping with the allowance of the fabric staying relatively flat. Then I hand sewed the rest of it. It gapes open a pretty good amount so I'm definitely going to go back in and try to machine sew the rest of it since I pretty much hand basted it into place. Not visible when my hand is down but ... yea, not satisfied.
And one last weird thing. (Please keep in mind that none of this is me complaining about the pattern because I DID NOT follow the directions and made so many changed I'm sure all of my issues are my fault lol) The darts on the bodice back were smaller than the darts on the skirt back. On the front they were perfect. I think I marked the wrong dart on the bodice back.. It's okay though because I I still lined up the edges of the darts fine.
Anyway, that was ALOT of talking lol So I will leave you with this pseudo twirly pic (read: windy as heck pic)
Let me know what you think!
xoxo, Tasha
I love this dress! The piping adds a ton of interest, and I'm glad you put it in the waistband. One thing I learned (after struggling a lot with piping myself) was to remove the cord from the inside of the piping from about 1/2" before where I wanted to insert the zipper. You still get the black line, but it's now flat. No one can tell the difference unless they are way too close!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I actually did that! lool BUT the intersection of the bodice seam allowance, the skirt seam allowance, and the piping (even w/o the cording) was super bulky
DeleteIt looks stunning. I always have little problems like your collar and zip too. I wouldn't consider the difference with the darts a problem at all so long as they lined up properly.
ReplyDeleteStella Lee
Thank you, Stella :-)
DeleteLovely dress! That piping details really makes it a showstopper!
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteLove the line of the dress and the white looks stunning on you! adding the black pipping was genious … very graphic... and takes it to another level!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sasha! You are def one of the inspirations for my creativity. I try to think of how I can make more interesting :-)
DeleteVery nice! Thanks for sharing with Visible Monday and have a great week.
ReplyDeleteI really love your dress !
ReplyDeleteYou step it up by adding the black piping and even if it was difficult, you did great !
Thank you!
DeleteReally striking dress, and so many quirks - totally love the collar and the idea of the darts on the outside super cute; agree with PoldaPop take the cord out of the piping loads easier. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Amanda :-)
DeleteI love the black piping. I'm featuring you today at Mabey She Made It.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much!
DeleteI really think the black piping looks great with the dress. I do have one question, are your darts inside out or did the dress call for outter darts? Just curious.
ReplyDeleteThank you! and the pattern calls for all exposed darts :-)
Delete