Pattern Review: Vogue 1250 [Feather Dress]

Pattern: Vogue 1250 (DKNY)
Fabric: Knit jersey from Metro Textiles, NYC
Size: 10 bodice, 12 skirt

Boots: Nine West

A couple of weekends ago, I attended a birthday party at Finale in Harvard Square, a fab-oo-lous dessert place that I’d been dying to go to since I watched an episode of Phantom Gourmet featuring the restaurant.  That morning, I got the idea in my head that I absolutely HAD to whip up a dress to wear out to dinner that night…you’ve had those crazy moments, right?  And considering that the weather was unusually warm for October, we’re talking around the 78 degree mark, it was even more of an excuse to make something for the party.  This pattern has been in my back pocket for awhile now and it was the perfect dress pattern for the few hours of time I had before I needed to get ready for the party.

The Pattern

At only three pattern pieces, and one of them is the neck binding, you really can’t complain about sewing this dress together.  There’s only a center back seam for the skirt, a seam connecting the skirt to the back bodice, a partial side seam on each side of the dress, and the shoulder seams.  That’s it!  I think the most time-consuming part of the whole pattern was marking and stitching the pleats together and tacking down part of the neckline facing to the shoulder seams.  You can kind of see the back seams in the photo below:

It was slightly tricky trying to figure out how to grade the pattern into two different sizes since there are virtually no side seams – the bodice front and skirt are entirely one piece with the skirt wrapping around and joining in the back.  I cut a size 10 for the bodice and switched to a 12 for the skirt segments, with a little bit of grading in-between the two pattern sections.  I probably could have cut a size 8 for the bodice and a 10 for the skirt, but it’s nice that this dress is a little roomy and not so fitted – it worked out well when the dessert menu came around after dinner that night!

My only gripe is the neckline.  This baby is super wide and super low, which is evident by the model on the envelope.  The night I went out I wore a long cardigan over it and was conscious of observing that my neckline wasn’t flopping around or that I wasn’t bending down or leaning forward too much. I really need to wear a cami with this dress, which is fine since I made it to wear primarily during fall and an extra layer won’t hurt.  The facing is very fiddly and the raw edge flips out too easily, something else I have to watch when wearing this dress.  I’ve never had to deal with a facing doing that on a dress like this before.  But the draping the neckline creates gives the illusion of curves I don’t have.  Score!

There’s a reason why there’s over 90 reviews on Patternreview.com for this dress – it’s a universally flattering pattern that delivers great results considering how simple it is to construct.  I love that I can dress this up or down depending on how I accessorize it and it can be layered easily for the changing fall temperatures.  I just may have to make another one of these next year when the spring weather returns.