Vogue 1287 DKNY dress

This was one of my favourite patterns in the last lot of Vogue patterns, but there have been hardly any reviews of it which always makes me nervous!  One of the criticisms at the time was that the dress on the pattern photo was made in such a busy print that it was impossible to see the details and I'm afraid I have done the same thing with my version.

I wanted to get some of my older Vogue patterns made up before the new ones arrive so I just worked with the fabrics I had in my stash.  This needs a fabric with stretch and as my stretch fabric stash is quite precious to me I used a very loud, some would rightly say gaudy, jersey that I bought because I loved the colours but then didn't know what on earth to do with.  It has brown, teal, tan, coral, marbling and animal print on it and if that sounds like too much that is because it probably is!

I always enjoy making Donna Karan designs, the pattern pieces are generally unusually shaped and the details are always interesting - this was no exception although it wasn't particularly difficult.  I was a bit confused by the pocket facings and had to do quite a bit of pinning together before I understood the instructions, but it worked in the end.

I made a few small changes;

• I put elastic in the whole of the waistband instead of just the back.  In my jersey fabric, which I didn't interface anywhere, this helped give the waistband a bit more support and keep it in place.
• I didn't make the slip to go underneath the dress, but I did add a few invisible stitches just to keep the front wrap in place.
• I was short on fabric so I couldn't do a faced hem, I just did a narrow hem instead.

Back view

I'm still on the fence with how I feel about this dress, like the Vena Cava dress I made last year, the pleats and pockets draw attention to the hips so it is a little challenging to wear, but I think I like it enough to try it in a plain solid fabric rather than a crazy print.  At least this stuff is out of my stash now, I'll give it a test outing and see if people cross the street and run away shielding their eyes.