Vogue 9243 Cowl Neck Renaissance Dress

A surprisingly fabulous make. The stars really aligned for this dress. The style suits the fabric both from a pattern and drape perspective. It is a long time since I have had such an enjoyable sewing experience especially given the major style alteration made to the pattern. It was a great start to the 2020 sewing year which then hit a major pause for the rest of the month of January.

The finished garment

Aesthetically I really love the finished garment it drapes well the print flows nicely around the dress and changing the pattern to a cowl neckline was just right for this fabric. The fly in the ointment is the actual fabric design and colour. Neither the print nor the colour would be a usual choice for me and whilst the dress has been worn a few times I am still not sure that it's really me.  There will soon be a second version of this dress in a rayon challis print that is definitely me. Despite my reservations I have received a number of compliments, one of my colleagues thought it was the nicest thing I had sewn.

The colour in the first two photos is more representative of the real life colour. The pictures were taken on a very bright sunny day and the colour in the bottom three photos is a bit over exposed.

The fabric

This fabric has been maturing in the stash for three years, purchased from Elliot Berman in December 2016, a Dolce and Gabanna digital print in viscose challis.

When I asked Google to search for this image it suggested Cappella Palatino in Palermo Sicily. In the collage of three photos the bottom is from the Palatine chapel but I can't identify where the middle photo of a closed in portico or corridor lined with statues is and the top is a typical D&G aesthetic of chains and crosses.

As soon as I started imagining Vogue 9243 with a cowl neck this fabric sprang to mind. Before this I have never quite been sure why I bought it. Not really my colours or my style, but sometimes we have these brain farts and at least mine only involved fabric.

The pattern

This is the second time out for this Vogue pattern in as many weeks. The Rebecca Taylor knit version has been worn a lot so V9243 was a natural choice for adaptation to a cowl neck version. It might get its fourth outing as a knee length yellow piece dyed Linton tweed dress.

The dress is described as a semi-fitted and flared pullover dress, below mid-calf or lower calf, has back neck slit with button/loop, low cutaway armholes and side pockets. Narrow hem. Purchased belt.

Suggested fabrics are: Jersey, stable knits, light weight linen, crepe-de-chine and silk likely Jacquard.

The pattern alterations

This time the fabric is a non-stretch woven and the pattern size was checked against my TNT woven dress pattern. On the whole the size 12 was used but with ⅜" added at the bodice centre front blended back into the size 12 at the waistline. The width of the neckline was retained, a forward shoulder adjustment made and the armhole changed to match the TNT woven sleeve pattern.

The major alteration was to convert the bodice to a cowl neckline using this Threads Magazine tutorial.  The author of the tutorial suggests a depth of 20" (from neck edge shoulder seam point on one side to the other with the drape of the tape measure illustrating the depth of the cowl) and that measurement seemed to give me the drape I wanted.

Starting with my modified bodice pattern I traced it onto brown paper (picture 1); drew in the cut lines (picture 2); cut the pattern apart and spread the sections to achieve the desired cowl drape (picture 3); and taped the cut parts down (picture 4).

The next thing to do - transfer the bust dart to the shoulder.  The eponymous Vogue 1250 Donna Karan cowl neck sheath dress was my inspiration. The shoulder pleat in the DKNY dress creates extra drape and fullness for the cowl and I wanted to replicate this in the adaptation of Vogue 9243. By transferring the bust dart to the shoulder the pleat could be created (picture 5).

Every time I embark on a sewing adventure I learn something new. This time the thing I learnt was that the drape of the cowl is determined by the length between the neck edge shoulder point and the centre front seam.

Making the pattern alterations for the cowl was a great experience thanks to the Threads tutorial and everything really fell into place. My knowledge and understanding were increased whilst I had fun playing with a great pattern to get more style variations from it.

When the fabric was cut out the pattern pieces were cut on the fold as this print with the fabric yardage I had did not support centre front/back seams so some of the twirl had to be sacrificed for the integrity of the print. The cowl was not cut on the bias and relies on the wonderful drape this fabric has to fall in its soft folds.

This is quite a slippy fabric and to reduce the challenge when cutting I used the lines on my cardboard mat to align the fabric. Then the fabric is held in place with pins through the fabric and cardboard.

The dress is lined with a white cotton lawn which was cut out without the cowl neck facing, as I knew that I only wanted the cowl in the viscose challis to get the drape.

The sewing

When the pattern alterations were made I only allowed ⅜" seam allowances, my preferred width. The sewing was pretty straightforward with a few tweaks because I fully lined the dress and I was worried about the viscose challis supporting the darts.

The lining and outer fabric were sewn at the back neck edge right sides together, the seam was pressed toward the lining and under-stitched, then trimmed with pinking shears. For the lining front neck edge I hemmed it for an inch or so before sewing the shoulder seam to make the shoulder seams in the outer and lining fabric the same length. I couldn't hem the lining front neck edge completely at this stage as I wasn't sure what shape it should be in order to not interfere with the drape of the cowl. The lining and outer fabric were then sewn together at the shoulder seams using the overlocker with the cowl facing wrapped to the back so the shoulder seam is half covered by the cowl facing.

The side seam pockets were attached at the appropriate place on each of the viscose challis side seams using the overlocker then the side seams were sewn. The lining and outer fabric were sewn separately at the side seams to allow the side seam pockets to sit between the two layers. As I wasn't sure if the darts would be needed I tried the dress on at this stage and decided the darts would provide a better shape. The four fish eye darts (two front, two back) were all sewn through the lining and outer fabrics. The lining and outer fabric were hemmed separately, the outer by hand and the lining by machine.

The sleeves were assembled including being hemmed by machine, then inserted in the round using the overlocker.

Now that the dress was pretty much finished I left it to hang overnight. The next day I turned it inside out and free hand cut the lining neck edge in a U-shape below the bottom of the cowl drape. Two tucks were made in the lining on either side of the U-shape to remove the excess fabric. The narrow hem on the neck edge was turned twice and machine sewn. Excuse the wrinkles in the photo below, the dress was dragged out of the laundry basket for the photo, as I thought a photo of the lining neck edge would assist with my garbled explanation.

Outfit of the day

The dress does seem more me when worn with my Untouched World Possum Merino Queen Bee wrap in the Golden Pearl colourway. The yellowy green of the wrap brings those colours to the fore in the dress. The shoes are Ivy Lee Courtney in faux yellow python - pity they are flat, if they were skyscraper heels they would really go with the aesthetic of this D&G print!!

This was the first outing for the dress, worn to lunch with a girlfriend so I could get a second opinion before it made a public appearance at work.