Vogue 1191 Michael Kors Dress (OOP)

I've made this dress twice before on this blog back in 2010 (print here and solid here) and it is unfortunately now out of print so I won't blather on too much about it.  It's designed for 2 way knits and is one of those twisty patterns I still love to make where the pattern pieces bear zero resemblance to the shape they end up in.  

The instructions are a bit confusing in places and the pattern is rated as advanced, but as long as you carefully mark everything, preferably in different colours for different types of markings, and keep the pattern pieces to hand for reference eventually it does look like a dress!

The only change I made was to raise the centre front neckline which although looks very elegant on the model is too low for anyone with any kind of bust or who plans on moving around in the dress.  I showed the pattern adjustment for this in an old post here.  Oh, I also omitted the zipper again, the neckline is plenty wide enough that it is completely unnecessary unless you don't like pulling dresses on over your head.

My fabric is a grey and purple jersey, hard to see the purple in these photos though.  I really like this dress and recommend it if you can find it on sale and like this kind of challenging puzzle.

This is the time of year lots of bloggers reflect on their past year of sewing and make resolutions for the coming year.  My sewing output definitely went downhill in 2015 - partly because I thought my beloved BurdaStyle magazine was awful until August (though I think this is just how I personally felt about fashion in general this year) and also I just felt that I had enough clothes and no burning desire to make more for the sake of it.  Again reflective of my views on current fashions I think.   BurdaStyle has definitely picked up in the last few months though so lets see how 2016 goes.  I still love sewing and goodness knows I love fabric shopping!

Blogging has been a bit slow too and a large part of this is that I find it difficult to take photos of myself and just put off doing it to the point where blogging something I made months before seems pointless.  Now that I have a decent dress form that is pretty identical to my measurements I hope you won't mind too much if I make use of the dress form in more of my posts in future.  

The Christmas Vogue 1191

Here it is, pre turkey, pre eyelash application but post Christmas cocktail - which with hindsight was possibly the wrong order of doing things.

We had to get the bus to my friend's apartment for lunch and I felt so silly in the drag queen eyelashes I wore sunglasses, which looked almost as crazy. Ok maybe not....

Hope you all had a lovely time, we are winding down now but enjoying seeing England thrashing the Aussies at cricket!

Vogue 1191 completed

Here is the finished dress. It does work in this print I think, I did shorten the hem by about 4 inches and I had to cut the sleeves slightly shorter (I am wearing them pushed up a bit in the photo below) so I am now wondering if I will be able to squeeze another version or 2 out of some plain jerseys I have in the stash. Even if I can't, I am definitely going to make this dress again and if that means a fabric shopping trip so be it!

To answer a couple of queries from earlier posts;

Marking jersey - I am very old school when it comes to marking fabric and for all internal markings I use tailor tacks. I like knowing that I can use this on any type of fabric and that I will be able to see the markings from both sides. The downside of course is that it is slower than other methods. For markings on a seamline or for ends of darts I just clip into the edge of the fabric in the seam allowance.

The waist facing - I found that this was necessary after all - as well as covering up all the pleats and giving a smooth neat finish on the inside, it gives something for the pleated skirt front to anchor to, leaving the twist part free. At least I think that is what's happening! In any case I recommend adding it in even though it seems like there are is too much fabric in the front twist already.

Back waist facing

Front waist facing

Vogue 1191 - looking like a dress

I've made good progress on the Michael Kors draped dress. The most time consuming (and boring) part was marking up all the dots, squares and pleats, once I actually got started on the sewing things happened fast. Admittedly for the first few steps I had no idea how the pattern piece for the front worked and it was only after step 9 that I discovered the front bodice was self lined! This seems obvious now given that the back bodice is self lined but it goes some way to explaining why the front bodice looked so odd.

I'm finding this very similar to the Donna Karan dress in that you just have to mark everything carefully and have blind faith in the instructions. The only changes I have made so far are;

Neckline adjustment a la Jacqui

The pink lines below show the adjustment you need to make, basically move the large dot on the centre front line up towards the neckline.

Omitted the centre back zip

Unless you have an extremely stable knit or a very elaborate hairstyle, I can't see any reason to add a centre back zip, especially as the front is a low v neck so save yourself the trouble.

Still to do are the waist facing which I still haven't figured the point of yet, sleeves, hem and to tidy up the drape and close any remaining gaps there. But it is really looking like a dress now and I feel like I am on the home strait!

Autumn sewing begins - Vogue 1191

Dresses served me so well over the summer that I want to get a few together for autumn and winter too. Since I enjoyed making my Donna Karan draped dress so much, I'm starting with this very similar long sleeved Michael Kors number - Vogue 1191.



I'm making it in a black and white print jersey and to be honest I don't know if it will be totally successful in a print but that's what I had enough of on hand and I wanted to start right away so I will cross my fingers!


If anyone else is thinking of making this I thoroughly recommend checking out Jacqui's Home Made Couture blog which has lots of fantastic tips and photographs - thank you Jacqui, especially for the hint on how to raise the neckline.

More coming soon when I have something that actually looks like a dress and not just a random pile of jersey....