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Friday 25 July 2014

Vogue 1241 Kay Unger dress

I've had this pattern in my stash for a while and this fabric I bought recently reminded me of the pattern photo so I thought it was about time to try it.  I kind of wish I had tried it sooner because I love it and I think it would look good in both solids and prints.  In fact it might be better in a solid so you can see the details better.

Vogue 1241



My fabric is a stretch cotton so I planned to make a more casual, unlined version, but nevertheless it has turned out looking quite dressy.  Which is fine, a dress I can wear to cocktails and then throw in the washing machine? Thank you very much!



I made a size 12, blending to a 14 at the hips and apart from extending the front crossover (details below) I didn't have to make any other adjustments.  I'm really happy with the fit, but I'm glad the fabric has some stretch to it when I sit down.



Since I left off the lining I finished all the exposed edges on my serger, which takes a bit of advance planning to make sure you finish them in the right order because of course the instructions, which I largely ignored, give you no guidance on this (although to be fair the dress is supposed to be lined).  Alternatively you could just finish all the edges before starting to sew.  The other change related to the lack of lining is that I needed to add some facings, the original dress already had pieces for this designed for interfacing to be applied to the dress fabric so I used those.



The adjustment I made to the front crossover to avoid any gaping is the same as I did for this dress, just extending the amount of crossover, keeping the original neckline intact - but make sure you don't extend it beyond the princess seams.  I hadn't thought about this, but got incredibly lucky!  Obviously I had to make the same adjustment to the front facing too.  I handstitched the front down as well (obviously I am paranoid about gaping!) and now I look at these photos I can see that it is pulling the neckline so it doesn't sit straight - totally did not notice this is real life!  I will have to change it, right there is one good reason for taking photos for the blog!







I'm so glad I finally got around to this one and will have to dig out some of the other Kay Unger patterns I have hiding in my stash, I expect I will also be turning to this pattern again sometime.

My first lot of photos turned out rather blurry for some reason and my second lot where I tried out different locations in my apartment, the camera battery died after 3 shots.  These will have to do or we could be waiting an age for any blog updates.  Also more often than not I am unable to upload the most recent batch of photos onto my blog, I can see them in iphoto, but they are not available when I try and select them through blogger and I have to reboot the mac.  Its not a big deal, but it is annoying - does this happen to anyone else or does anyone have the solution to fixing it?









27 comments:

  1. Beautiful dress! I have this pattern in my archive as well and now you have inspired me to pull it out!!! Again great job.

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  2. I like the change/s you made to this dress. It fits you so well and I know you'll get lots of compliments wearing it.
    I'm not sure that the go is with blogger and photos. I had to save them onto picassa. I still have to figure out if it's worthwhile linking them from Flickr. You can tell I'm not a techo:)
    I'm looking forward to your next make!

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  3. I adore this dress, well done!

    I also own this pattern in my stash, I am now thinking about making it before the end of summer.

    Allison did you muslin this dress? Or do you do what I somtimes do, and try to make the alterations as you? I often find that a muslin is a great way to "not mess up" but there are clearly times when even a muslin does not replicate how the fashion fabric will behave.

    Thank you for your insight.

    Joanne

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  4. lovely dress! Yes, make it again :)

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  5. Beautiful! Great combination of fabric and pattern!

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  6. Really lovely! I also have this pattern in wait... Your changes are perfect.

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  7. I love this on you and can't believe it fit you right out of the envelope! I made this dress last year and had to make a ton of alterations to the pattern to get it to fit.

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  8. love it what a great combo of style and fabric. This is the one Vogue designer pattern that actually defeated me in the past few years, luckily I was testing in muslin but I could not get it to fit and the bodice was problemmatic. so envy here! of your fab version :)

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  9. I really like your make! I now want to sew this pattern now! :)

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  10. Your dress looks fabulous. Love the fabric and the fit is amazing.

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  11. Wow - that looks gorgeous on you.

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  12. OMG! I'm soooo jealous right know! Your dress is beautiful! The fit is just perfect.
    I try to make it myself after seing Amanda's version last year and I had soo many fitting issues that I just gave up.

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  13. Lovely dress. Cocktail and washing machine friendly? Yay for stretch cotton!
    -sewingelle

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  14. Fantastic dress, it looks amazing!

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  15. I love this on you & your fabric choice was spot on.

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  16. Gorgeous, as usual!

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  17. Beautiful dress and the fit is perfect!

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  18. What a gorgeous dress. You've nailed the fit so well!

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  19. I love this dress! I love these sort of prints and yours is really gorgeous. It's a great, flattering fit.

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  20. The fit is perfect and I love the fabric. I quite enjoy the puzzle challenge of finishing all the seams in the right order 😉

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  21. Its a beautiful dress. I love the idea of a cocktail dress you can throw in the wash! I will be looking out for a sophisticated cotton stretch, although I think this might be a rare beast - yours looks awesome.

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  22. Beautiful dress -- I really love the fabric choice as well as the design.

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  23. Sorry can't help you with the photo loading issue but this is an awesome dress! I love the fabric you chose for this and it fits awesomely!

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  24. Nice fitting dress. I am with you on having a cocktail dress that you can throw in the washing machine; easy peasy dressing!

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  25. I'd love to hear more about losing the gape at the front of this dress. I found it too revealing despite efforts to change the pattern.

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  26. That pattern is so glamourous. Beautiful job on yours. You must have such fun wearing it. If I was you wearing it I'd be acting all, "Ooo look at me, I'm so pretty!" Ha ha. A winner for sure.

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