Forrays into the land of Garment Construction

After completing my first project, I was on the hunt for a garment pattern that I could wear on any of the other 364 days of the year. Since graduating college, I am constantly searching for cute work dresses so I went straight to the Very Easy Vogue section of the Vogue pattern books. They have so many great dresses, although I have to say "Very Easy" is a relative term. I believe this designation originated in the mid 1900s when Home Economics was a required course. For those of us who have never seen a sewing machine up close, let alone grasped the numerous terms used in pattern instructions, a well-placed * might come in handy. (*Extreme beginners will need Google pulled up on a nearby computer and a bottle of wine in the house before attempting.)


http://voguepatterns.mccall.com/very-easy-vogue-pages-856.php


Anyhow, I settled on a simple sleeveless dress. There are a few darts in the front but it looked fairly straight forward.

Chalk it up to my first impression of the dress or my lack of an imagination but I made the sleeveless version on the right with just about the exact color of fabric. I'm way too chicken to attempt any sort of plaid fabric similar to the picture on the left.

Some of the directions were odd, such as basting the darts. For beginners or inexperienced sewers, that basically means long stitches that are generally just temporarily holding a fold. If you look at the picture, you can see the fabric is sewn together at the folds right under the belt. Regardless, I followed the pattern and basted at the top but now that the garment is complete I'm fearful that the thread is going to come undone. It's sewn at the top to hold the folds, but if the basted section comes unthreaded, I think the fabric will pooch out too much. The way the dress is sewn I can't really go back and re-stitch so I'll just have to be careful with it.

The only other snag I hit was the zipper. The instructions on the pattern and in the zipper package leave a lot to be desired. I made my best attempt but resigned to calling a family friend. I was actually pretty proud of my results based on my complete lack of experience but she took one look at it and handed me a seam ripper. After it was removed she sewed the zipper back in place with far better results. Thanks Tina!

Despite a few minor issues I completed the dress and it fits like a glove! One of my top recommendations for sewers would be to be honest with yourself. Don't try to lie and say you're really a size or two smaller or plan to lose weight. If you're putting in all that effort, you should have something that fits as soon as you're done.

Let me just say that trying this dress on and getting to wear it to work made all the stress, bottles of wine, and lost pins worth it. There is nothing better than getting a compliment on a dress and getting to say you made it! As soon as I got off work that day I went straight to the fabric store to find more patterns.