Saturday 17 April 2010

V8070 review - an easy Vogue pattern. Yeah, right.

In between daily hospital visits, I've been making a silk dress for my friend to wear to the PTA's May Ball. We chose Vogue's V8070, which I bought used on Ebay and which just happened to be in my friend's size rather than in my own much larger one. I also had some beautiful maroon silk in the stash, which I thought would make up beautifully into this dress. I had tried to make a silk skirt several years ago and it was a dismal failure but I've learned a lot since then so I wasn't expecting much trouble from this Easy pattern. Ha!

If only I'd actually read the back of the envelope before blithely getting out the rotary cutter. All the clues were there: lined, bias cut inset, no provision for above waist adjustment. And the Vogue instructions were less than helpful. I discovered these excellent tips on sewing bias cut fabrics on Threads. And Threads also have a wonderful video on conquering inset corners, something I only realised I needed to watch after I had sewn the lining.



Thanks to the Threads video, the inset corners on the shell came out beautifully. I only wish Threads had produced a video on how to sew an inset cut on the grain into a bias cut dres. I did it three times and there's still a bit of a ripple along the bias. So frustrating! You can't see it so much in the photo, but it's definitely there.

Now I can start on my own dress, which is also a Vogue pattern. Vogue describes it as 'Average', so heaven only knows what a mess I'll make of it! It's unlined but I'm using Vietnamese silk which has a crisp hand but is pretty lightweight, so I'll need to do a lining, and needless to say, I'm doing version B, which is not cut on the bias!

4 comments:

Millie said...

The dress is beautiful despite all you've said.
I look forward to seeing yours...I love the pattern, very stylish.

Julia said...

The dress is really pretty. It's too bad you had issues making it. Can't wait to see your new dress.

Kathryn said...

Thank you! It looks slightly squat in the picture because I wanted to get it all in shot, but it looks beautifully long and elegant on my friend. I'll be posting pics from the ball so you can see it modelled. I'm thinking of adding sleeves to my own dress - my upper arms aren't my best feature! So I've done a muslin of the bodice and so far it's an awesome pattern.

Unknown said...

Hi, I have been trying to get hold of this Vogue pattern for my daughter who is doing a Great Gatsby inspired outfit for her HSC. NO luck so far. Is there any chance you no longer want the pattern. We could use it and then send it back if you like. Also appreciate your tips about it. Therese

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