On My Cutting Table: Vogue 8723 [Fit and Flare Dress]

This dress is going to be a winner, I can feel it.

I immediately jumped onto this project Saturday night after my fail at a Vogue DKNY dress and did a tissue fit of the pattern.  Seriously, why didn’t “Custom Fit” patterns exist years ago??  They’re freaking brilliant!  I selected the bodice pattern that fit my bust size (the smallest one, obvs), pinned all of the darts, side seam, and shoulder strap into place and voila: a perfect fit, unheard of for me with patterns with bust darts.  Just to make sure it wasn’t a fluke, I cut out the lining for the bodice and stitched it up to test the fit.  Again, spot on.

My only hesitation with this pattern is the skirt.  I read some reviews on Pattern Review that the skirt is wicked full and difficult to gather, especially with heavier fabric like the cotton that I’m using.  I’m going to try sewing a wide zig zag stitch over a length of cord or floss to gather up the skirt instead of sewing two rows of basting stitches; the basting is more than likely to break with all of the pulling and tugging.  I’ll also try the skirt on myself before I attach it to the bodice – I have a feeling, with the body and fullness of this cotton, that it is going to be one super poofy skirt and may need some trimming down.  Which should be easy, since the skirt panels are just wide rectangles.

The fabric is from Metro Textile in NYC – look for a post this week about my shopping adventures and what I found!