Advance 9441 Take Two - Summer Lemon Dress

Oh look, Advance 9441 is back and in a lemon print just like past Heather had promised. Wow for once she didn't lie to us about sewing plans. (It's all her fault when posts about sewing plans don't come to fruition. She should know that I get distracted by shiny new things.)

Does this version of the pattern really need it's own blog post? Not really. But sometimes a fabric/pattern combo works out great and you want to post a gazillion pictures of it. So please bear with me and in return you can all have lemon bars at the end of the post.  I sure Froggie won't dust them all off while you're reading.

Let's talk about this beautiful lemon cotton lawn for a minute, because it's only gracing my body thanks to the kindness of another sewer.  I saw this beautiful fabric on Handmade Jane's blog last year when she sewed up  a Mortmain Dress. That dress instantaneously filled me with a bad case of fabric lust. The colors, the painterly quality of the print, the sheer size of those lemons. It Was Perfection!  I quickly clicked on the link to Abakhan fabric with my credit card in hand.  Well my friends it was then that I found out that Abakhan does not deliver to the US.  NOOOOOOOO!!!!

Having been foiled in my attempt to purchase this fabric I went over to Twitter to whine about it. "Booo Hoo Hoo, poor me. Why can I not relieve my fabric lust by rubbing this fabric all over my face?"  (I might have left that last part out of my tweet.) Then Elena tweeted me,  "I can order some and mail it to your house." SHUT THE FRONT DOOR! YES, YES, YES!!!  So Elena awesomely enabled my fruit print fabric addiction and personally shipped 4 yards of lemon lawn to me.  I am forever indebted to her because this fabric is the bomb.

Fitting/style wise this version is the same as the one made in March, other than using the shorter sleeve length. I was actually surprised at how long the "shorter" kimono sleeves are. Guess I'm used to the length of gussetless kimono sleeves that just cover the shoulder.

Finally some sewing notes.  Cotton lawn is a lovely light weight thing, but it's semi-transparentness can cause problems in the underwear department.  I decided to underline/line this dress with some Siri interfacing from EOS.  I haven't been able to find anyone stocking true Siri poly/cotton lining like Gertie used to have in her online shop that one glorious summer. The lightweight rayon/cotton interface is the same weight and the hand is almost the same. It works great for underlining if you don't feel like shelling out $$ for cotton batiste.

The bodice portion is underlined and the skirt portion is a separate lining.  If I had to go back and do it again then the dress would have a proper full lining.  At the time I couldn't stomach the thought of sewing extra gussets and took the "easy" way out.  (The easy, easy way out would be picking a pattern that didn't have sleeve gussets.)  In the end my combo underlining/lining doesn't look any different from the right side of the garment and that's OK by me.

In closing I'll leave you with some theoretical tall glass of lemon aid and a good petticoat twirl picture. Ahhh summer, you're the best.

Photo Tutorial - Reinforcing underarm gussests with silk organza

Warning - this post is only going to appeal to some of you.  If underarm gussets are something you're never gonna sew, then mark this post as read and we'll talk fun things later. Fun things like cake, or Froggie, or eating cake with Froggie.

OK then, I'm assuming that those of you who have stuck around are wild about gussets. After all having a better range of motion in a kimono sleeve is something to smile about.

Sewing gussets is a bit of a different story. Like fly front zippers, my brain refuses to remember all the sewing steps no matter how many times I've sewn them. The directions on the Advance pattern were a bit vague, so I cracked open a few sewing books to refresh my memory.

The book I ended up using was Gertie's original text "Gertie's new book for better sewing." Her steps included using silk organza to reinforce the seam.  I had silk organza, gussets and a camera, so I took some pictures of the process. I'm not inventing anything here, just providing a pictorial overview of the steps.  As a visual learner I though it might be helpful to others who learn the same way.

Sewing Gussets with Silk Organza
For reference - My pictures correspond with steps 5 and 6 of the Wiggle Dress pattern.

Step 1.  Mark the gusset stitch and slash lines on your bodice.  Note -You'll be sewing the silk organza to the right side of the fabric. 90% of the time you'll be transferring the sewing lines onto the right side of the fabric as well. On my project I ended up putting my marks on the wrong side because of the black background. (My chalk was hiding that day.)

Step 2.  Cut out a piece of silk organza that is a bit larger than the gusset area. Pin it over the marked lines on the right side of the fabric.

Step 3.  With a small stitch, stitch directly on top of the marked stitch lines.

Step 4. Slash on the slash line up to the tip of the stitching.

Step 5. On the right side, fold the silk organza towards the slash and press.

Step 6. Draw in the seam allowance on the gusset piece

Step 7. Pin the gusset to the bodice, matching the drawn in stitch line on the gusset with the stitched line on the bodice,

Step 8. Stitch the two pieces together by stitching directly on top of the line stitched in Step 3. Try to keep any wrinkles from getting under the needle while pivoting at the tip of the gusset.

Step 9. If the gusset is pucker free than press it with the seam allowances out like this.

Step 10. Flip the bodice to the right side and edge stitch around the gusset seam.

Step 11. Turn the bodice back to the wrong side and trim the silk organza a little smaller than the seam allowance.

The finished gusset will look like this on the wrong and right sides.

Then you've got to go sew 3 more gussets! I suggest rewarding yourself with chocolate after completing each one. Then when you're all done go have a piece of cake with Froggie. Those calories don't count.

Sewing with the Pattern Stash - The Planned Project, Advance 9441

Let me tell you a little story about a vintage pattern. Back in May of 2010 I was quickly entering the "Jubba the Hut" phase of my pregnancy.  My days were pretty much filled with lounging on flat surfaces, stuffing food in my mouth and dressing Froggie up in golden bikinis. All that was missing was a bug eyed puppet to laugh manically at my witticisms. Should have added that to my baby registry.  Anyway I filled the "non eating/regurgitating that same food" time with melodramatic groaning and surfing the internet. Several sewing blogs were on regular rotation and that is how Advance 9441 waltzed into my life.

Oh hello, just standing around being fabulous. 

Avid readers of Gertie's blog may remember that she made this pattern in 2010 out of some lovely lemon print cotton. Droooool lemon print cotton. I would have happily swiped that dress from her closet, but I was equally taken with the fashion illustration for this pattern. Does the brunette look like Audrey Hepburn or what? You can almost hear her swishing around on that giant skirt. Her crinoline must be magnificent!

If I'd been sewing at that time this pattern would have gone on the top of the "must acquire" list. In reality constant nausea sapped all my creative energy and easy knitting was all that I could mange. Then I got involved with having and feeding a small human and things like getting more than 2 hours of sleep were more important.

Through the years this pattern popped up on Etsy and Ebay semi regularly. It was always either the wrong size or more than I'd like to pay.  The pattern would get favorited and usually be purchased by someone else. Things might have remained that way if  Michelle hadn't posted her version of the dress. Oh My God! This pattern needs to be mine!  After wiping the drool off my keyboard the internet search engines were put to use.  In a twist of good fortune I found Advance 9441 in my bust size AND on sale at the ebay store Vintage4me2. (Great store BTW. They have a nice selection and the customer service is good.) And that my friends, it how this full skirted beauty is now hanging in my closet.

In my excitement of finally owning this pattern, I also acquired 4 years of rayon twill from Black Bird fabrics. Planned project is a go.....except that it sat around for a month while I puttered around with the Butterick coat. Then several other projects got sewn after that. Yeeeeep, this project was well on it's way to stash closet of forgetfulness.  To keep that from happening I made it my planned project stash bust for the month.

The style lines of this pattern are pretty simple, kimono sleeves with gussets and a full paneled skirt. Sewing the gusset area is the only part that needs intermediary sewing skills. I consulted Gertie's first book to refresh my brain on this area. (There will be a separate post about this because I was playing with the new camera.)The rest of the sewing is easy, if time consuming work.  Hemming the skirt took a whole 6 hour audio book.

This was the first time I'd ever sewn with a rayon twill, so here are a few notes about it.
- It is thicker than regular rayon, which makes easier to work with. I did not have to take any special steps, like starching, to cut out the fabric.

- Rayon is still a tricky beast and will make you do some extra basting.  For example I pinned all my waist seam joins before sewing the seam. This technique often works with well behaved fabrics, but with rayon all the joins were 1/8" off after sewing.  I had to pick out the entire seam, baste all the joins and sew the seam with a walking foot. '

- The twill weave is prone to snagging. With the black background it shows as a visible white line. Take extra care handling pinned pieces and try to seam rip from the wrong side of the fabric.

While rayon twill won't suppliant my enduring love of cotton sateen, but I don't regret purchasing it. The print is just divine.  And on that note, let's get to the pattern review.

Pattern
Advance 9441 (There's a 32 bust and a 36 bust on Etsy at the moment that I'm posting this.)

Fabrics used
Rayon Twill from Black Bird Fabrics. (Still in stock as I post this.)

Pattern changes/alterations
- Dropped the bust dart 1 1/2" and shortened the front waist dart by the same amount.

- Made a 1/2" hollow chest adjustment to the front bodice.

- Lengthened the sleeve 5/8" along the shorten/lengthen line. This put the elbow dart in the correct position.

- Added 5/8" to the side seams since my waist is 30" instead of 28". I could have added less as the full skirt makes the area roomy.

- Increased the back dart intake to 2 1/8".

- Removed 1 1/2" of length off the skirt.

Confessions/Advice
- The fashion illustration would leave one to believe that the hem length of this dress would fall just below the knee.  I'm an average high of 5' 6" and it hit a bit below mid calf.  In addition to the long length, the hem facing on the pattern is a whopping 2.5".  You could easily shave off some yardage reducing these two areas.

- I seem to be having bad luck with necklines lately. The front neck facing does not want to stay inside the dress.

-  Although I love this print of this rayon, it's probably too soft of a fabric for the design. The fabric recommendations included much stiffer fabric such as taffeta and pique. Both the bodice and the skirt could do with a bit more body.

- This skirt could really use two petticoats or one with a lot more volume. At this time I only had the one 35 yard petticoat to pad it out.

Husband Comment
"I like your sleeves. They only go down part way like a baseball players."

My Final Thoughts
Is Advance 9441 everything I'd hoped it would be? YES!!! It's a great kick off for my #vintageplege goal. Even though hand hemming the skirt was a half day marathon, I'd already like another version of this dress. One with the shorter sleeve length to wear during the summer months. Maybe in a lemon print, maybe.