vogue 8379

August 16, 2020September 28, 2020 ~ Tia Dia ~ 20 Comments

This is an old make. It dates from 2017, and I confess I have never worn it except to take photos… well, perhaps I wore it once? But I absolutely love the dress, so why haven’t I worn it? I don’t know. I tend to reach for the easy and familiar in my closet which usually doesn’t mean a dress like this. I need to just decide to wear it.

Who hasn’t seen a version of the classic Vogue 8379 pattern?

I purchased the fabric specifically for this dress from EOS, at least 10 years ago. It was one of my first purchases from Linda, and one of my first forays into sewing knit or jersey fabrics. This is a printed rayon, and it behaved beautifully while I was working with it: no curling, no stretching out of shape. And despite hanging in my closet for three years, it hasn’t stretched out, either.

The dress is a fabric hog: just over 3 metres of 150cm wide fabric. It’s the skirt, of course, and I don’t begrudge it a centimetre because it moves and hangs beautifully.

V8379 blue stripe back — _{I love the back of this skirt!}

I love the sleeve cuff detail. It isn’t perfect pattern matching, but, if you look at the first photo, you can’t really tell. I actually had to rip these cuffs off, not once, not twice, but three times (!) because I put them on wrong. So much for accurate markings; and by that time, I was so sick of trying to get the cuff on correctly that I couldn’t be bothered matching the patterns perfectly. But I love the split cuff.

Vogue 8379 sleeve detail — _{split cuff, not perfectly turned or pressed}

Some construction notes: I serged the seams for quick and stable construction, and simply turned up the hems and used my knit zig-zag stitch. I love using this stitch for knits, as it is strong and yet has enough give for the stretch in a knit.

Vogue 8379 hem — _{It looks like a loose sloppy stitch, but the stretch zig-zag stitch works so well!}

Burda Wrap Top

July 20, 2012 ~ Tia Dia ~ 23 Comments

It’s been hot hot hot here lately, so I’ve not been doing so much sewing lately, although the heat has driven all of us into the basement where it’s tolerably cool and comfortable. And although I’ve been sewing for other people lately, this is the first little thing I’ve sewn for myself in the last 10 days. Is it really only 10 days? It seem like longer than that since my last post.

I used a silk jersey for this wrap top. It’s sorta kinda based on Burda’s wrap top 3-2012-121 but I wanted a top that didn’t require a tank underneath or a substantial FBA for proper coverage, so I stole the bodice pattern from Vogue 8379 because I know it fits without any major adjustments. I shortened the bodice by about 4 inches and add the long ties to the bottom of the bodice. They’re 57 inches long and 8 inches wide. I did not finish the edges, and am debating about doing so. There’s a big part of me that’s screaming “It’s not finished yet!”, and I may succumb and hem the ties properly. I used a long strip of self-fabric cut on the cross grain as a narrow facing for the neckline instead of the facing suggested by either Vogue or Burda. Both had facings at least 1.5 inches wide for the front. Why? A simple strip of fabric works so much better for knits.

I debated for a long time about whether to make a tunic or this top from the jersey, and I’m glad I went with this. I like the idea of tunics, but I think I’d reach for this more often. It’s cool in the heat of summer and I love the print!

Copy that dress!

September 20, 2011September 25, 2011 ~ Tia Dia ~ 2 Comments

I love this dress. It’s a very loud print (at least up close and personal), but I just love the easy wearing of this dress.

So I made a copy of it from some very lovely heavy rayon lycra knit from EOS. I didn’t quite have enough fabric to copy the entire thing properly, so I improvised a few changes. I used Vogue 8379 for the bodice because the original dress lacks some coverage, and I thought the extra pleats at the bottom of the Vogue design would add enough fabric à la a required FBA.And it worked. I didn’t have enough for the facings, so I cut two long strips on the crossgrain about 3 cm wide, stitched a CB seam along a short end, folded it in half and pressed it, and made a little neckline facing? collar? edging? Geez…. my mind is atrophying these days…. I also made little cap sleeves and ended up with shorter ties (so I can’t tie a bow), but otherwise it’s pretty much the same. It’s super comfy and warm enough for a sunny fall day.

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