Vogue 1250 Meandering Chrysanthemums

The first garment of 2017 - presenting Vogue 1250, the ubiquitous DKNY knit dress made and loved by sewers around the world. This is a re-make that went together much more easily than the original and without reference to the pattern instructions which seem to have absconded with the pixies. For some reason the bra shows in the photos but it doesn't in real life.

The Fabric

A Liberty of London print this time purchased from Shaukat I think, or maybe Liberty on one of my in-person visits way back in the mists of time. The fabric is a jersey in the print Meandering Chrysanthemum. This is a Liberty print I am very fond of, having this same colourway in silk chiffon and you have already seen the red silk chiffon as the Swirler top from the 2016 retrospective. Then there is the cotton jersey in the blue colourway in my fabric collection, a recent purchase from The Fabric Store.

Do you think anyone will notice that I keep wearing the same fabric print and/or the same sewing pattern?

The Pattern Alterations
The original dress was adjusted to raise the armhole and increase the depth of the cut-on facing for the cowl. Both of these recommendations came from the Sewing Lawyer who I greatly admire and has much better sewing skills than me. However the length was as per the pattern and it is a bit too long plus there is an obvious (for a sewer) pool of fabric in the centre back.  For this version I shortened the length by 4½" so it fell just below the knee cap (my preferred length) made a sway back adjustment and my usual forward shoulder adjustment. The upper back is in two pieces because I didn't have enough fabric to cut it, as Donna intended, in one piece. Also due to fabric limitations there is no pattern matching.

The Sewing
For the back neckband, the armholes and the hem the fabric was turned under and stitched down using the sewing machine. The rest of the dress was made on the overlocker.  I used a ballpoint needle (size 80) in the sewing machine with a universal (size 70) in the overlocker. For the back neckband and armholes I stay-stitch them 3/8" from the edge then use this stay stitching as a guide to turn and press under.

For the hem I use the Linda Lee trick, from one of her Craftsy classes, using the file folder with marked lines at desired intervals from one long edge.  You put the file folder on top of the fabric turn up the hem to the marked line at the depth you want, in this instance 1", make sure the file folder is right into the fold of the fabric and press. This gives you a really sharp crease at a uniform distance from the edge with no burnt fingers. If you do this before you sew the centre back seam it is an even quicker and easier way to mark the hem as you are working with an essentially flat piece of fabric. Most fabrics retain the crease through the sewing and pressing of the seam and once this is done you can fold the hem back up and stitch.

The Previous Version
Here is my original Vogue 1250 dress in an ITY knit fabric from Silhouette Patterns made many years ago but still in the wardrobe and worn relatively regularly.