Vogue V8787 Pattern Review: Thread Filled Thursdays

What a busy month I’ve had so far! Mr. Houseful turned 34 (YAY for birthdays, BOO for spouses who really aren’t that into celebrating, and tend to work on their birthdays,) we have celebrated the 12th year pastoral anniversary of my pastor, which is also kind of bittersweet because it coincides with thoughts of my sister, Shomari’s birthday, and so many other things. However, we had a great time! Then, of course, there’s sewing! This time I ventured over to Vogue, and sewed up the Vogue V8787 pattern which is a 6 view fully lined dress with either a gathered or cowl-ish bodice paired with a pencil or flare skirt. 

Let me first state that when I first started sewing, everyone told me to stay away from Vogue patterns for as long as possible because they are just so ridiculously hard to sew. Most people hear a warning, I hear a challenge. I’ve been sitting on this pattern for about a year and a half now, and I figured that now would be a great time to spread my sewing feet and try something new. I used a brown Ponte Roma knit from JoAnn Fabrics and Crafts, and a lighter knit for the lining and got to work. 

The pattern took me about an hour to cut out, and match up with lining pieces. For reference, I cut out a size 14 and I worried for a bit as I was trying pieces on as I sewed them up, but the more I did, the better it fit. One of these days, I’m going to do an FBA (Full Bust Alteration) and have a fit that is to die for! 

New things that I learned – I learned to put a lining in fully so that the dress looks wearable from the inside out. Too bad I didn’t think about those things when I went serger happy on certain aspects. Yes, I have a new to me serger, that was given to me by a cousin. I love it. I mean, I really, really, really love it.  I didn’t have any types of trouble with the hem like I usually do with knit garments because this dress isn’t cut where I have to ease the hem into place – thank goodness! I also learned that I am drawn to a particular style of dress to sew, so far, so I’m going to attempt to break out of that for the coming months. 

I also successfully lined up every single seam inside and out, including making them even across the zipper line, and that is a HUGE plus for me. Usually, a side seam is a scant 1/16 of an inch off and it bugs me, but this dress turned out as perfect as perfect can be for me. I will, however, have to buy serger cone thread in different colors because I have white now, and it showed too much under the sleeve caps for me, since they don’t fully cover out the bottom. 

When I initially finished and put the dress on, my hem pulled way too much for my liking. I realized that all it needed was a good press, and I was good to go. The lining is contained in the hem, so I didn’t have to worry about my hem ever peeking out from the base of my dress. Mr. Houseful did say that he thinks that my back bodice panels should sit up higher on my shoulders. I’ll have to play around with it at a later date if I choose to learn how to alter patterns anytime soon. 

I’ll let you know something, and it’s kind of weird. In this outfit, I feel comfortable in my skin. It’s kind of conflicting because I feel like it’s too plain. That I didn’t put enough OOMPH into the fabric choices, but it’s perfectly me. I doubt that I will make another any time soon, but we all know how that could change. I’ve always loved brown. My wedding colors were brown and sage green, and I tend to gravitate towards the colors for comfort. I haven’t made myself ANYTHING in brown since I started sewing, and I loved this! I did see a Ponte knit in red and an awesome blue that I could see this in, but I’m not sure. 

For those of you full feminists and old school ladies out there, I am indeed wearing stockings. I learned early on from my mother how to purchase stockings that made it look like I was going bare-legged, and I love her for it. The shoes were purchased years ago, and don’t get enough love from me. I love the men’s inspired look of them. They are from Qupid if that matters and probably cost me less than $15. I do mega sales on shoes. I love them too much to pay through the nose for them. 

The sunglasses were a gift from The Vision Council and I tend to keep them on me during all seasons because the Chicago sun is BRIGHT! Now that there was this brief break in the cold temps, the sun was reflecting off of pools of water. Yes, pools. No worries though, the weather forecast is slating us for another 16+ inches of snow this week. My allergies are revolting.

I do hope that someone out there is starting on a sewing journey and can join in to let me know what they are working on. Remember, that I learned from YouTube in 2010 and just keep trudging forward making mistakes as I go along. I have PLENTY of UFO’s (unfinished objects) and sometimes fall into a sewing funk, but the machine always calls me back. If you’ve completed anything recently, or are in the midst of sewing something, link it up so I can come and fawn over it. No limits to how many links you can put – just make sure it’s sewing/knitting/crocheting/embroidery related!