Vogue 8413 Dress

I was flying out of town for my cousin's wedding Thursday morning so naturally I had to start and make a dress Wednesday night!  :)  I already had the pattern and fabric planned out.  The fabric was already pre-washed, but all the cutting and sewing happened Wednesday night after dinner.  I used Vogue 8413 view C.  The fabric was a berry ponte double knit from fabric.com.  This dress was less than $20 to make!  This dress was also part of my fall wardrobe (but not my PR wardrobe).

Pattern modifications:
1.  Removed the pleats from the front of the skirts
2.  Didn't use interfacing on facings
3.  Used an invisible zipper

I love this pattern and style!  It definitely needed a belt and I don't own very many.  I ended up going to Target the day before the wedding to buy a belt and a clutch.  They were perfect!  I think it was a good buy.  :)



Because I was making it in a haste, I didn't finish my edges or hem the bottom of the dress.  I will need to go back clean those up, but other than that I love my new dress!  I received many compliments on this dress at the wedding despite my hap-hazardly construction.  See my side seams don't even match... I need to fix that, too.

Hopefully I'll have some pictures up later of the clutch and back of the dress, but I don't have any right now.

Vogue 1027 Dress

I made the Vogue 1027 dress.  It had many good reviews on PatternReview.  The fabric is a poly/lycra matte jersey from Joann.  I love the large geometric print and the jewel tones in it.

Here are a couple of changes  I made to the pattern based on others' reviews.
1.  Eliminated the elastic in the waist.
2.  Eliminated the sleeve facings (I serged the edges and did a narrow hem).
3.  Cut out extra pieces of the tie ends so the wrong sides won't show.

I ran into a few snags while working on this dress.  I didn't have a large enough area to cut out the pattern pieces, which made it a little tricky.  I also found it difficult to lay the matte jersey  flat, which is mostly like due to the size of surface area.  I normally make the pattern size that is one size down from what it should be based on measurements.  However, I didn't have the smaller size and made the size I "should've been" based on the pattern size chart.  The dress was rather large.  I took in at least 1.5 inches at the sides around the waist.  I also sewed the pockets in wrong.  I didn't think through the process and made the pockets go towards the back of the dress instead of the front.  I'm not sure how to fix this since I serged it to the bodice (oh well...).

I didn't like the dress at first.  It seemed too bulky around my waist, but it's grown on me and now I like it.  I just haven't decided on the length... I like it, but I wonder if I'd like it more if it was shorter.  I don't own any dresses that are this length so maybe it's something I just need to get used to.  Overall, I'm happy with my dress.  :)

Front:


Back:


I really like the pleats on the bodice. Bodice & tie detail: (Please excuse the awkward shot.)


Review.

= Birthday Dinner =

My husband loves chocolate and peanut butter together. So for his birthday I looked for a chocolate peanut butter cake recipe and came across Smitten Kitchen, which had the perfect recipe! This recipe is one of the best! The cake is very moist, rich, and delicious!!

Old FO - Butterick 5246

I finished this Butterick 5246 at the beginning of the year, but never got around to posting pictures or a review until now. This is only my second time wearing the dress and I still haven't decided if I like it or not.





Here are few of my dislikes:
1. The wrong side of the ties can be seen. This could be a pretty easy fix, but I didn't have enough fabric to fix this.
2. The cowl part isn't as big as I thought it would be.
3. The wrong side of the cowl can be seen if it doesn't lay perfectly.
4. The gathering at the center front under the bust is a little too poufy.

Despite all of the above... I still kind of like it, but I definitely don't LoVE it. Oh well... I'll probably wear it a few more times. Here's a full review.

Here's detail of the cowl neck.