Vogue 1395

My early days of sewing love were pretty much entwined with Vogue Designer patterns, so when Spotlight had a $5 sale on Vogue patterns last month, it was enough to entice me through the crowded car park into their store.  I spent a pleasant half hour browsing through the pattern catalogue, but truth be told, could not find anything to spend my money on...partly because I already have a pretty big pattern stash, partly because I am in a bit of a drafting phase, and partly because my lifestyle is more casual than most of the Vogue designer patterns.  I couldn't go home empty handed though, so one more flick through...and then I remembered really liking the back view of Morgan's bossy bees dress.

This pattern has been around for a while now, so I had the benefit of reading plenty of reviews first, which led me to address the following issues with some pattern changes ;

• Armholes too low - I raised the armholes, but I'm not sure how much I raised them in the end, because I raised them a whole heap, and couldn't move my arms, and so had to lower them again.
• Shoulders winging out - I folded down the shoulder on the back overlay, as shown in the photo below.
• Ties wrapping under boobs - I made the ties a lot narrower and changed the angle of them, as shown in the photo below
• Tie meant to be made in a fabric with 2 good sides - I followed Katie's lead and made a facing for the ties.  I changed the construction order.  I only partly sewed the shoulder seam, then I used self fabric bias strips to finish the back armhole, to the front armhole and then the back overlay down to the facing.
• Back of dress pulling back due to the weight of the overlay - actually, I didn't overcome this problem.  I have been wearing this dress quite a bit in the last couple of weeks, but this does annoy me sufficiently that I won't be making another version of this pattern.  I do really like the back neck gathers and the front V neck, so I may adapt the pattern to make a top.

The fabric is a rayon from Lincraft.

My sewing has been pretty seasonal lately...this summer I have made this rayon dress, 2 rayon tank dresses, a yet-to-be blogged Tessuti Colette top and a handful of tank tops.  I made a pair of swimmers today.  Now I just need a couple of pairs of shorts and a new kaftan would be nice, but there won't be time before our Christmas holiday.  I did order some shorts online, but the site I ordered from has changed their sizing and they were all way too big...serves me right for thinking I could get away with not sewing something :)