Vogue 1252 - Tracy Reese knit dress w/ front drape

This pattern was not in my original picks from the Vogue fall pattern offerings. I loved the other Tracy Reese dress with the front twist and wasn't sure I needed another similar dress. Then I looked at the pattern construction at the fabric store, and was sold that I needed this one as well. It is gorgeously constructed, which I will write about further down.

The reason this jumped to the top of my fall sewing plans is that I already had this knit on hand. It was purchased this past spring from JoAnn's and was part of their green/camo inspired line which I have forgotten the name of. It was going to be for a sleeveless summer dress but I thought it looked very fallish so got reassigned.

I LOVE the ruching along the midsection, the elbow length sleeves, the front draped overlay, the full skirt, and...

the back exposed metal zipper. When I first modeled this for Justin, he was not all that enthusiastic about that design element - he thinks it is an eyesore in an otherwise pretty dress. I think it adds a bit of oomph to the back. This is my second dress with this kind of closure and possibly my last. It's a fun look, and I enjoy jumping on a trend now and then, but metal zippers are honestly a little irritating along the spine. Perhaps I need to wear a cotton undershirt with it.

You can see the front drape in this neckline close-up. The other side of the neckline has ruching along it's top and bottom as well. That side gave me a bit of trouble at first because the outer fabric hung off the lining fabric. It wasn't at all taut like ruching should be. I remedied this by cutting the extra fabric off of the outer fashion fabric. I had to repeat this process in other areas of ruching too.

When I first attached the full skirt, it was gathered all around. However, I don't like gathers along the sides of my waistline because they add bulk to my already square shape. So I took the skirt off, regathered the skirt, and reattached. This dress has a TON of gathering. If you aren't fond of gathering, I suggest you pass on this pattern.

Along the sides of the fashion fabric, I cut 3/4" from the side seams, so that when they were gathered and attached to the lining, the ensuing gathers would be taut. I basted the zipper in by hand, and then went back and stitched it with the machine. These sorts of zippers always make me nervous. It went in twice as well since the first time I stretched the fabric too much and had a pucker at the bottom.

This is the fullest skirt in my closet and I love it's twirlability. The length was really dowdy at first and I kept second guessing weather I would like the finished dress or not. Does anyone else do this? About 50% of the time when I'm making something, I convince myself that it won't turn out as cute as I'd hoped. Then I flounder around for a few days wondering if I should put any more hours in on it, and finally decide to just power through. I usually end up loving it. When I hemmed up the skirt and cut off the excess length, it magically transformed into a really lovely garment.

This full knit lining is what sold me on the design. I have never put one in before and have never worked with knit lining fabric, but I do love a beautifully finished interior and was excited to try something new. This lining is tricot from Fabric.com in a beige color and was a dream to sew. It had lots of side to side stretch but no top to bottom stretch, so the ruching along the side seams stayed put without having to use stay tape.

 I didn't want to ruin the clean finish of the dress interior, so I added bias tape along the sleeves to enclose that seam. The neckline is also finished prettily with a bias facing included in the pattern. I basted it in first so I could machine stitch along the outside of the dress and get a nice uniform topstitching. I'm becoming a big fan of basting stitches lately, and like to use a really bright color like red so they are easily seen and removed.

Okay, so I'm actually really excited to have this completed because it took a full two weeks of sewing time with lots of little stumbles along the way. After figuring out how to get the ruching taut, the next main obstacle was the length of the bodice. I should have measured it - this is an alteration I often have to make lately as bodices seem to be drafted shorter and shorter. But I looked at the example dress from the envelope picture and thought it would be long enough. It was not. Without the skirt attached, the bottom of the fabric hit me well above the belly button. I had already invested at least a week for the bodice and was extremely depressed over this blunder. After sleeping on it and thinking about the problem in the shower (does anyone else work out sewing issues in the shower?), I decided that I could add to the bottom of the bodice and it would be invisible amongst all the ruching. That involved drafting 4 more pieces - front and back lining and front and back main body fabrics - and more gathering and matching up of side seams. I ended up adding 1 3/4" to the length, as you can see in the picture below. This was taken before the outer bodice lining was put in.

I used the tricot as an underlining in the bodice to gather the side gathers onto and to eliminate the need of stay tape, which I didn't have on hand and thought might add some bulk to the sides. This worked extremely well as the  tricot was very thin and remember it has no top to bottom stretch. One thing I love about this pattern is the tacking of the ruching to the inside. (That's what looks like black thunderbolts in the above picture.) WHAT a great idea. In the other dresses I've made with ruching, I find myself constantly adjusting that area while I'm wearing it. But with the ruching tacked, there is no to do that! Also, with having an underlining, I could tack my ruching to that and the actual lining covers up and protects those stitches.

Other tweaks I made were to cut the sleeves slightly longer so I could take a deeper twin needle hem and left off the front pockets. I cut a size 10 and the waist is very snug, so I eliminated the waist elastic.

Whew! I am relieved to have this project completed. I originally thought I might remake this dress without the front drape, as the neckline is so pretty and interesting underneath it. But with all the gathering and fiddling about with thin stretchy fabrics, that is unlikely to happen. Besides, I still have the other Tracy Reese dress with the front twist to make up, and it has a ton of gathering in it as well.