Vogue 1250 Elevenses Dress

I wasn't jealous that my crafting partner in crime Cath was having a textile adventure in Japan without me.  It was pure coincidence that when I went into The Fabric Store a fabric which made me think of Japan came home with me.  Obviously it was really the tea theme and the colour that influenced the buying decision, not to mention that it was a lovely cotton jersey.

The finished garment

I think of this as my Japanese tea dress. The fabric was absolutely desperate to become this dress, there was no maturing in stash it was bought on Saturday, washed on Sunday and made on Tuesday (ANZAC day so a holiday in New Zealand). And I instinctively reached for Vogue 1250, no dithering about which pattern to use. Really not a typical Creates Sew Slow make. I didn't even use the seam ripper during construction.

Wearing this dress to work made me feel good.  Another successful iteration of Vogue 1250.

The fabric

Another Liberty of London Ganton 100% cotton jersey, from The Fabric Store, this time a pattern called Elevenses in the azure colourway. Described by the Fabric Store as a bold and bright china teapot and teacup print in azure blue, crimson and sunflower yellow on a crisp white base.

There is enough fabric left over that it could be combined with something else to become a creative top of some sort. Or maybe this is when it sits in the stash for the next 20 years.

The pattern

My third version of Vogue 1250, a DKNY pattern simply described as a close fitting dress.

The pattern alterations

This is a TNT pattern with alterations that allow it to be used straight out of the envelope. From memory my version has a deeper cowl facing; forward shoulder adjustment; raised armholes (to eliminate bra exposure) and 3/8 inch seam allowances.

The sewing

As usual pretty straight forward on the overlocker.  The back neck seam allowance is pressed under and stitched down on the sewing machine with a straight stitch - no back neck facing for me.

The armhole hem allowance is pressed under, but not stitched down, before the shoulder and side seams are sewn. The back armhole hem is sewn turned under when the side seam is overlocked.  Once the side and shoulder seams are overlocked the whole armhole edge is turned under and straight stitched in place. This makes the finished armhole edge much neater.

The major change to how I normally sew this dress is that I actually hand stitched the hem. Just didn't want that line of stitching marring the fabric pattern.

The styling

No styling just an outtake from the photo shoot. The photographer was making fun of my toy soldier pose so I started being stupid and he captured it for posterity. That pose looked much better in my head, in reality it's more akin to the dance from the Morecambe and Wise show.