Vogue 1250

Winter Vogue 1250

~ Tia Dia ~ 18 Comments

Vogue 1250 dark

Have you all survived the Christmas whirl of food, gifts, visiting; repeat?  Our Christmas consisted of a rambunctious Christmas Eve (with requisite ball skirts) and a very quite Christmas Day in PJs.  And today is our first 6 inches of snow!  *happy happy snow dance*  Now it feels like Christmas!  🙂

Last week, in the middle of the preparation rush, I made up a winter version of Vogue 1250, simply because I had extra of  “the ugliest fabric I’ve ever seen”, according to DD3. But how could I refuse when it’s full of interesting patterns and so many of my favourite colours? It’s a heavier ITY knit from EmmaOneSock.  It’s a patchwork pattern that is printed in blocks, and I thought it would be great for a casual Burda top.

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I used #130 from the 9/2012 issue.  It was sewn on a whim, and literally took about 1 hour to cut and sew, with fitting towards the end. I significantly altered the pattern as you’ll see.

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The top is 30 inches from the back neck. I didn’t want a tunic that long, so I shortened it to 24 inches. It’s also very loose fitting, and I didn’t want to need to wear a belt, so I scaled down a size through my hips.  I wanted it to stay at hip level and not slide down to mid-thigh length.

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The instructions were very simple to follow, for me, but I’m getting used to Burda’s way of writing, I think. They suggested trimming the seam allowance from the back neckline, adding ribbon to the right side of the seamline, turning it in and stitching it into place. I used a strip of the ITY cut on the cross grain instead – simply a personal preference!

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I added about 3 inches to the depth of the neck facing so there’s no risk of the wrong side flipping out.

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And sandwiched the facing with the shoulder seams.

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This is in the instructions, and it’s a great and easy way to attach a cowl facing neatly and securely.

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I shortened the sleeves and did gather the bottom. It would have been bulky in the ITY, and my previous experience with such gathered sleeves is annoying for my current work requirements around the house!

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The Vogue dress is odd, but I’m liking the oddness of it. When I put it on to check fitting, DH remarked that it was a nice dress.

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Unfortunately, I didn’t quite have enough fabric, so the skirt is one size smaller than it should be. To remedy this, I stitched the “side seams” (very long darts in reality) with a 1/4″ seam allowance and added a 2 inch strip down the CB of the skirt. It’s not the prettiest, but it fits and looks nice from the front! *head desk*  I’m hoping no one will be looking at the back much, although it doesn’t seem to be such a horrid patch fix given the patchwork print.

Vogue 1250 winter

Vogue 1250: I think it’s a go this time!

~ Tia Dia ~ 1 Comment

Well, here’s my second go at this very popular dress by Donna Karan.  The first one was a disaster due to a bad fabric choice, but this version is wearable.  It’s amazing how a particular fabric makes or breaks a design.  I used a poly-lycra knit from Emma One Sock that’s been in my stash since last summer.  It’s a green-grey feather print on a python print background.  Yeah, I know it sounds odd, but it works.  It’s a mid-weight knit with substantial body which helps with the skimming and shaping on this dress.  I must say I’m very pleasantly surprised with the quality of this jersey.  It was a 3H day today with the heat and humidity around 38C, so it was the perfect “test” weather to see just how (un)comfortable this poly-lycra would be.  Surprisingly very comfortable without that horrible scratchy itchy suffocating feeling that has been my experience with poly-lycras in the past.  Way to go EOS!

So here’s what I did differently this time.  I changed the size from my last run of this dress:  I cut my regular size through the bodice (no FBA) and one size smaller through the skirt, and since I’m slightly pear-shaped, that means I cut a straight size.  The only adjustments were my usual 1” short waist adjustment; a small addition to the armscye on the back bodice piece to give a more “round” look to the armhole and provide more coverage; and about 3” of additional width to the cowl facing.  I will confess to copying Kay’s design changes for the cowl and armscye, which you can read about on her blog.  Thank you, Kay!

I’m still not so enamoured of this dress that I need a second version.  One is definitely enough.  It’s passable in this print, but contrary to popular opinion, I don’t like it enough to sew another!