Summer of Dresses - Vogue 8728

Good news everyone, you've all been cordially invited to my "Summer of Dresses" cake tasting party/dress parade. They'll be plenty of cake and alcoholic beverages, but you might want to clear your schedual cause the dress parade might take all summer.  Get out your lawn chairs and settle in cause the festivities are about to BEGIN!

The first dress in our parade is the vintage inspired Vogue 8728.  Let's let the our model tell us a little more about the pattern.....

Pattern
Vogue 8728 - As if you didn't know. ;) Actually if you're anything like me you don't remember pattern numbers at all, just the illustration on the front of the envelope.  This is the one with two vintagey ladies looking put out about having to attend some lame ass cake party.  The one is the black already has her "bitch please" pose going.  The flora lady is either mocking us or is secretly pleased with her armpit hair removal technique. 

Fabrics used
Stashed rayon/lycra jersey originally from Emmaonesock.com. All the birdy prints will be MINE!
Also some left over stretch lining also from EOS. She has it in different colors than the one I bought a couple of years ago.

Pattern changes/alterations
It was a classic Heather moment when I went and bought the pattern and then read everyone's PR reviews on this dress.  The common recommendation was to go down a size or two, however I'm a Vogue size 16 which is the smallest size in the larger size split.  There was no smaller size to go down to unless I threw some more money at Vogue. And Vogue was getting any more of my crumpled one dollar bills, at least not today.  That turned out to be a good decision because I needed the depth of the size 16 bodice to fit my girls and taking in a side seam is a lot less work.

Here is the rundown of all my changes....
1.  Cut down all the seam allowances to 1/4" since I was using a knit.

2. The neckline was too wide so 1" was filled in just at the shoulder edge and then graded out to nothing.

3. On the back I folded the darts closed and taped them shut.

4. Took in the side seams 3/4" and raised the bottom of the kimono sleeve 1".

5. Reduced the length of the neckband  4.5".

6. Shortened the bodice length about 2" in the back and about 1 3/4" in the front because my waist is titled.

7. Reduced length of skirt about 4". 

8. Drafted a lining for the gathered part of the bodice.

Confessions/Advice
1. I want to thank Jennifer of Jennifer Lauren Vintage for bringing to my attention the potential problem of  "boob gatherage".  Aka the gathers sliding to the sides of your boobs leaving you with an unsightly smooth areas attracting you the wrong kind of attention.  She mentioned that one fix for this was to draft a bodice lining piece without the gathering ease.  I did draft one up in a totally half hazard manner using the upper and lower bodice pieces.  First I took the upper bodice piece and traced the shoulder and sleeve area.  Then matched the lower bodice piece to the upper and traced the upper curve.  The neckline curve of the bodice lining was just drawn freehand.

2.  I reinforced my neckband with the beloved tricot interfacing that I won't shut up about.

3.  It was hard to tell how long the bodice needed to be before adding the skirt so I did a lot of last minute tweaking of the bodice length/waist tilt.  I should have removed the skirt, cut down the bodice, and reattached the skirt.  I went maverick and just basted extra wide seam allowances at the waist until the bodice length looked correct.  Then a permanent seam was sewn in, the SA cut down, and edge reserged.  Most of the extra skirt length was sucked up with this alteration and I only had to cut an 1" off the bottom edge.

4.  The skirt was first sewn on with the 1/4" serger stitch but it felt too heavy for that narrow seam. I used my regular sewing machine to put in a lighting bolt/stretch stitch further away from the edge.

And now a little rant about the lighting bolt stitch....it is the work of Satan!  It's like trying to hammer in a nail with the handle of a screw driver.  You can kind of manage to do it, but not without cursing a blue streak and partaking in an alcoholic beverage so that you don't stab your loved ones.  Lord help you if you make a mistake and have to rip that motherf***king stitch out.  You might as well just fall on your sewing shears and end it all.
If you feel like sewing with knits on a regular basis, please for the love of god, buy yourself a serger!  I own the Brother 1034d, it's inexpensive, easy to thread and and never acts up...unlike the other two machines I own. Yes, I'm giving an extra slightly eyed look at you coverstitch machine.  Knits are only hard if you don't have the proper tool, get yourself the proper tool.  Thus ends my PSA/rant about sewing knit with your regular machine.
P.S. Here's my non-professional video on how to easily rip out a serger seam.  Now save your pennies and buy one.

5. I used the coverstitch machine to put in the hem and finish the kimono sleeve edges. A 3/4" worked well on the sleeves.

6. Hey Heather, didn't you just say that you don't wear gathered skirts cause they're not flattering and blah blah blah blah, gored skirt, blah blah?  Ummm yes, yes I did but a "lady" has the right to change her mind.  In this case I thought the gathered skirt echoed the gathered bust line and decided to go for it.

Husband Comment
"I actually like this one. What's that bird? A phoenix....like a phoenix rising from Arizona."

My Final Thoughts
Whoever first thought to make this pattern up in a knit deserves an award and a giant piece of cake.  Because you can eat a giant piece of cake and still look good in this dress.