Vogue 8810 - A new dress for fall

It's officially autumn, even here in south Florida, regardless of our very warm weather and leaves that stay green. And even I have the 'transition' bug, that little urge to do something different for fall.

I picked up Vogue 8810 last spring, not with any particular fabric in mind, but because I really like the lines of View D. It's a nice take on a shirtwaist, very feminine - no collar, bit of a bow at the waist, soft gathers at the shoulders, pockets, and a semi-circular skirt. Perfect.

Then along came this wonderful cotton print from Alexander Henry's Fulham Road collection, plum Sloane. I've had to rethink my initial neutral reaction to the Pantone 2013 Fall color palette...

Because they're all in here!

From Holly Lobby

This looks like a fall dress, right?

It's a Vogue Easy pattern, fun to sew, with lots of little details to keep me busy and content.

Sewing notes:

- This is my usual size 14, and the fit is spot on. I'm 5'7", and had plenty of hem, actually took it up 2".

- I sewed the waist with a 3/8" seam, rather than 5/8", just to get a tad more length in the bodice.

- The pattern has dropped shoulders, but I think they must work better with sleeves! The same pattern pieces are used for both sleeved and sleeveless tops, but sort of fly away on the sleeveless version.

From the pattern envelope

After I sewed the shoulder and side seams, I trimmed the armhole: 3/4" at the top, curing down to 1/4" between the notches. Then I trimmed off 1/2" the side seam, starting at the armhole, curing down to the first notches. Seems like I do this a lot now, all the big 4 must think we flair out at our underarms! end of rant...

- To finish the armhole, I used a 1 3/4"  self-fabric bias binding, rather than a facing.

- Because the tie belt is over a waistline seam, I extended the casing to 3/4" from the bodice edge. This way I won't have to worry about the seam wandering above or below the belt. It works really well.

- Button, button, who has the button...this dress is buttoned all the way down the front. Except I sewed the skirt buttons through both layers without cutting open the buttonhole. They'll never open!  And I ended up putting 4 buttons on the bodice rather than 2. This dress 'wants' to close higher on me, not something I feel like changing by redrafting the whole bodice! Easier to add buttons :-)

I didn't put a button at the waist at all, but sewed a large snap on the inside instead.

Cute dress with a modest twirl factor:

Ciao! Coco