Vogue 7762 - Black & orange floral dress w/ side gathers

This is one of 3 dresses I've decided I must complete this winter. This is the second (or is it 3rd?!) winter they've been in my to-do pile. For some reason when I picked this fabric out I mostly saw the turquoise color. Surprise! It's got much more orange in it. I needed a pattern without princess seams since the flowers are so large. This design features front pleats and back darts for a fitted look.

One thing about making long sleeve dresses is the arms are never very roomy on me, resulting in restricted movement and discomfort. (I suppose that's why all my dresses have 3/4 sleeves.) I've been wanting to try turning the long sleeves into bias sleeves, but have been worried about the outcome. With having an extra yard of this fabric, I decided to go for it. If the result was unflattering, I could always cut out regular sleeves and use those instead. Success! The bias sleeves are wonderful and this dress is very comfortable. I can raise my arms over my head without any restriction. I'm using this method for long sleeve dresses from now on.

Here's a close-up of the front tucks since they're a bit hard to see in the front view:

I added a full lining. This was hard to photograph since on the hanger the front bags forward and looks misshapen.

I put bias tape around the armholes to cover the exposed seam:

Here's the inside of the sleeve. I did french seams and hand sewed the invisible hem on the ends. Since this was such a small opening and the sleeve was cut on the bias, it would have been completely stretched out had I attempted to do this with the machine.

I think I liked those larger sleeves of this design with I bought this pattern years ago. Then I realized they were a bit impractical.



I am currently working on BWOF 11/2008-118, a simple dress that looks like a frumpy bag with a stretched out neckline. It needs a lot of work. Why are simple projects always so much trouble?