The Finished Article

One of my bad habits, of which there are many, is to start a project full of enthusiasm, only to discard it somewhere along the course of its partial completion, to lay unfinished gathering dust. This habit has led to an accumulation of tools, trinkets and incomplete items littering my living space. THIS time I decided, I would make sure to complete my project by signing up for a dressmaking course. At least then when enthusiasm waned I would be motivated in class to complete the dress. The pattern I chose was Very Easy Vogue 8146. 

The pattern is for a basic darted shift dress with a three quarter raglan jacket. The dress itself is not to my taste, however the jacket is right up my street, with its rear pleat and bow detail. Yes please! I bought the patten with the intention of making the dress purely as practice before attempting the jacket. Good call. The dress has proved troublesome to a novice such as myself. 

However, TODAY is the day I can finally say I completed one of my many projects. 

The dress has not a hope of being worn in public, owing to its many shortcomings. There have been issues with my sewing machine tensioner (hopefully now resolved), which was trapping the thread and causing the lower thread to loop itself up into bunches. I unpicked many seams before finally taking apart the tensioner and reassembling as per Googled instruction manual. I use a 1959 Singer 185K, which I adore, but it has its quirks. Eating thread is just one of its vices.

Back to the dress! It became apparent whilst constructing this dress that the size suggested for my measurements, in no way corresponded  to my measurements. I had machine stitched the back seam and shoulder seams (including some odd interfacing bits) before I came to this realisation. Upon completion of the dress I had taken 2" from the back seam, and roughly 3" from each side. I still wouldn't consider it tight enough.



I also somehow managed to cut one of my front pattern pieces a half inch longer, despite having cut them together...erm? Work that one out. There are a number of things I would do differently were I to make this dress again, besides correct cutting of pattern pieces. The pattern size should be at least one size down but probably two. A toile might be beneficial to get correct fit.

The interfacing of the collar and armholes as you see is rather chunky. I might try a different finishing method for the armholes and neckline (like binding) or simply clip the bulk out of the seams.

 The zipper provided me with a number of issues. The sewing of the zipper itself proved ok with my zipper foot, so that is an achievement at least, but I placed the zipper further down to account for my asymmetrical front panels. This left a gap at the top of the dress. The pattern calls for one hook and eye but I used two to make up the gap.

You can also see how the stitching is looped and not very tight. I lost count of how many times I unpicked this stitching before just resigning to my fate and leaving it.



When I took in the rear seam to reduce the size I failed to take in the small section below the zip (school boy error right!) and despite my efforts to correct it, I was left with this unsightly bump where the zipper ends.

When I took in the side seams I failed to consider the hem allowance and tapered the skirt bottom significantly to produce a more wiggle skirt look. When it came to hemming the dress I had to ease the fabric which caused unsightly hem crinkles at the side seams. See below.

 The crinkle also cause the split to hang wonky, which is a shame as I think the slit itself, aside from the darts, was probably my most successful part of the dress.

Were I to taper a side seam in future I would hopefully remember to taper the hem allowance to mirror it. I would like to have lengthened the dress as it sat on the knee, for me, the worst place. A dress or skirt, should be either long or short, not on the knee. Who wants focus drawing to their knees? Not me thank you very much.

The general shape has turned out pretty well considering all the taking in I have done. The six darts gave a good shape and I am happy to say I managed to get them neat and symmetrical.

Although the dress overall, is not great I think I have done a half decent job for a novice. Prior to this I have only done basic repairs and adjustments, hemming trousers, for example. The main point is I FINISHED the dress. Hurray! Now onto the main exciting part, the jacket. I have a beautiful green beige wool that will compliment Navy, Black and Tan colours beautifully. I expect, or rather I hope, I might make more of a success of the jacket than this dress. I can't wait!