Vogue Summer 2011

New patterns! Of course I'm looking through the new Vogue patterns instead of editing that paper, did you have to ask?

I think I only like one pattern that's not a dress, so let's start there.

Vogue 1247: The shirt is whatever, and really so is the skirt (besides being way shorter than anything I'd ever wear), but I love the idea of in-seam pockets in a horizontal seam. I'm not sure I like the way it actually looks, but it's novel and interesting so it's a winner in my book.

Vogue 1239: Love the collar and of course the pockets, and the wrap style that means no zipper is needed. I'm definitely picturing silk duopioni to give it some texture and make all the seaming pop. I do worry that it'll be a bit too stiff to actually be practical - I don't mind impractical in formalwear, but this doesn't scream formal to me.

Vogue 1235: Now this I can actually see making. I've avoided knit dresses in the past simply because the selection of knits at Joann, my only local fabric store out in the suburbs, is atrocious. They have a few solids which are fine, but that's it. Living in San Francisco for the last month, I've found new fabric stores, and it's definitely worth going back to the city to shop. This dress looks simple and cute (although they mark it as average difficulty, which scares me a bit considering the scale that Vogue works on), and I'm a sucker for pockets. I'm not sure how well they'll hold up in a knit, so I'm curious to see if there's any extra interfacing or anything in the pattern. This dress has a bit of the gathering on the hips that seems to be in style now, and showed up in a bunch of the new patterns. I'm generally not a fan (my hips are perfectly sized as they are, thank-you-very-much), but this is subtle and frames the pocket well.

Vogue 1236: No zipper and pockets - sensing a theme here in what I like? This one is a lot like Vogue 8645 that I already made, and I have to admit I feel a little weird paying for a pattern on something so very simple. This one at least has the neckline tucks that are interesting and not super easy to draft myself, and really, who am I kidding, I've never actually drafted a pattern. I like the high back neckline on this and the fact that they have little belt loops included (which I had to add to 8645), so this may be bought the next time Joann has a pattern sale. I will say this for Joann - I'll never buy patterns anywhere else or for full price with how often they have sales. Of course, that does mean I have about 20-30 patterns sitting around that haven't been made yet, but I have the option to make them anytime should I want to take it!

Vogue 8723: OK, I've given in and included one pattern with a zipper, but it has pockets at least to make up for that. I really like the high neckline - it's conservative without looking dowdy. And it's the same in the back too - a lot of high front necklines have a low back neckline, which I'm not a big fan of. It looks like the back zipper could be moved to the side without too much difficulty, so this is an option. I refuse to make anything other than formalwear with a back zipper. I need to be able to dress myself!

The last three are going on the list to be bought, or at least reevaluated, at the next pattern sale.

Progress report

It's been over a week since I posted my progress, so here it is. I am again actually farther than this, but don't have the pictures.

I gave myself the deadline of the end of March to finish the piecing of the strips, and I think I can make it. The back pieces go much faster - less curve to shape around, and shorter distance to sew. I'm really hoping the wrinkles will go away with a good steaming. This pic looks particularly wrinkly since the last strip is just pinned on, but it shows the process - pin the current pieces back onto Gertrude, then align the next two pieces (one on either side), pin them in place, then remove everything from Gertrude and sew by hand.

Doing everything by hand lets me really be precise about what goes where, and I think it's worth it for the final outcome. I hope! To get around the curves, I had to do a bit of gathering:

The gathering looks really, well, gathered, but I think it'll look more smooth in the final product. A lot of the gathering on the outside edge there went under the next piece - you can see in the top picture that it doesn't look gathered. Also, I think steaming a bit will help - silk can definitely be manipulated into shape with some steam, as I found out when originally pressing the formerly perfectly rectangular strips. Heavy steam and a tailor's ham should do the trick here, I hope!

Patterned

I tore up new strips of leftover fabric to get a gauge of how the fabric would curve. Good thing I can't stand to throw out scraps! The actual fabric (interfaced silk tubes, basically) is stiffer and won't curve quite as well, but this is a decent start. It's actually pretty in black and grey, I think - too bad my mother told me the one requirement for my wedding dress is that it not be black!