Vogue 1241 - Turquoise + yellow floral dress w/ side gathers

Wow! It's been over a month since I last updated this poor blog. August and September have been soooo busy. We went on vacation to Colorado, started all of the boys' fall activities, enrolled one son in school while continuing to homeschool the other, and I'm slowly getting use to homework/preparing for tests/uniforms/emailing the teacher with various questions/etc. I have been sewing but just haven't found much time to get things photographed and written up. I'm so behind!

Here's my last dress for summer, started at the beginning of August and completed towards the end of it.

This is a Vogue designer pattern by Kay Unger. I have several of her patterns in my stash but this is the first one I've gotten around to. I love the gathers along the front and back waistline, the cross over fronts with pleats at the neckline, and the squared off front panel. I chose a beautiful lightweight cotton sateen from my stash. I'm pretty sure I bought it online somewhere several years ago. You know how I feel about the color yellow...

The real work of this dress was the muslin. Straight out of the envelope this dress really did not fit me well. I started by lengthening the waist by an inch, a common alteration for me. The bust area was disastrous and definitely designed for someone with bigger girls. I didn't like that the back gathers were spaced out a shorter distance then the front ones. After all the fitting issues had been resolved, I carefully laid out my pattern pieces to try to balance the colors across the dress.

Here is a close-up of the neckline. I'm super proud of the fit and love the pleating. There is a small thread tack at center front to avoid possible wardrobe malfunctions.

Dressform pictures:

I used a white invisible zipper at the back and a new-to-me notion - a white hook and eye. This is probably something many of you already know about, but I was really excited to discover it.

For the lining I used a high thread-count white cotton sheeting from Hancock's. I've used this fabric to line previous items, and I really love the way it feels against my skin, especially on hot summer days. I wouldn't use it to line a jacket or a winter dress, but for a summer cotton dress it's perfect. And FYI, the front bodice lining pieces did not match up at all along the bust seam with the outer bodice piece. The lining piece was rather blousy and would have been lumpy looking under my dress without the trimming I gave it.

I like to write all my alterations on the envelope back during the muslin/pattern manipulation phase. Instead of writing out that very lengthy list, you can look at them here if interested:

This was my last summer garment and now I'm on to fall stuff. More soon!