Vogue 1191 - Part V - the end

For the last 3 weeks my car has been at the mechanics.  They haven't been able to work out what is wrong with it, but just as I started this post I got a call from them.   They have discovered that the problem is .... mice!   A nest was found way up inside the car and the mice had eaten their way through the covering on the electrical wires.     Mice!!!!!   Who would think!

Unfortunately, the result of this is extremely costly.   Those are very high maintenance mice!  Oh dear... have to think about that after Melbourne.  Don't want to put a crimp in my fabric shopping plans.

Now, back to the dress.  Have you had the experience of the muslin going together beautifully and the actual garment being a pain?  This is one of those.  

Step 20 of the Vogue instructions requires you to sew the centre back seam. 

Step 21 requires you to now pin / baste the skirt to the bodice.    Note that you aren't twisting the skirt like a twist top, you are just pulling the centre-back (which is hanging in front in the photo above) across to where it belongs at the back, and that creates the twisty effect.

Inside out the back will now look like this.

Right side out the front looks like this.  

Step 22 - 23 make the inside waist facing. 

Step 24 pin the facing to the basted waist seam and stitch.  The instructions make this look oh so clean and easy - I had really thick messy layers of fabric in the front, particularly through the pleated section.  

Trim and turn down facing.   Then tack it to front and back seams to keep in place.

Easy peasy from now on.  Sleeves - I did 2cm seams as they were a bit loose - tapering to 1.5cm at the underarm.  

And hem.   I used a twin needle for all the hems.

The final tidy up - as I had a bigger gap in the front than I think I should have (which I mentioned in the earlier post - to do with Step 8), I catchstitched the top of the pleats to the bottom of the cross pleat. You can't see it when it is on.

The messy stitching is my machine basting - all of that was removed at the end.

So, finally - the dress!  Looks lovely on the dressform doesn't it?

The black version, on me.    

Oh, I loved this until I saw the photos of it on me!  It's alright but it does look much more glam on the dressform doesn't it?  It looks more pedestrian on me.  I can kind of see why Vogue doesn't recommend this for rectangular body shapes - it creates a bit of a bulbous effect round the middle, given the pleating.     

 

I would love to hear others' experiences with this pattern.  It has some of the most confusing instructions I've come across in a while, or is that just me?

 

Off to Melbourne tomorrow and all those lovely fabric shops......