Monday, April 09, 2012

Purple flowered Vogue 8667 - this year's birthday dress




Around this time of year, thoughts usually turn to stitching a birthday dress. Last year, I made my blue knit dress - a wardrobe favorite! This year, due to the time constraints of the SWAP, I needed to sew a dress that would also fit into the SWAP - sewing TNTs concept, and so I turned to Vogue 8667. 

Fun little fabric fact - I bought it with a gift certificate my friend Anna gave me for my birthday last year. Birthday present fabric to make a birthday dress? Score! I love this fabric - it's a stretch cotton - it's quite thick, and doesn't need to be lined, simplifying the sewing tremendously.

What a lovely and easy dress to sew! The cotton made the sewing and the pressing super-easy. The pattern is really well drafted, with clearly marked petite lines. I folded as instructed, and everything came together swimmingly. (For the neckline, I could have drafted facings, but instead, I used a bias-binding strip, attaching it to the neck, and hand-tacking it down.)

Normally, I view any sort of hand-sewing as a failure. However, with this print, any normal hem was going to be visible, and I don't know how to sew an invisible hem by machine. So, I painstakingly hand-stitched the hem, the sleeve hem and the binding to the neck. Aargh. Would have taken me less time to learn how to use the blind-hem foot. 

The dress is a bit snug on me, no? My birthday's 10 days away. I guess I could try forgetting to eat from now until then. Or, Spanx. (In all probability, knowing both my love for food, and my love for comfort, neither scenario will happen.)

Still, I'm really quite pleased about the dress. (My cousin really has a gorgeous back yard - it makes for really fantastic photo taking! Check out that tree in the background!)


Oh, and the SWAP countdown? 4 pieces to go. 

9 comments:

Summerset said...

I think it looks great! Happy Early Birthday!

Clio said...

Very pretty! If the dress is at all tight, the pretty print camoflages it perfectly. It doesn't look snug to me!

anuradha said...

Nice dress Reethi!

AllisonC said...

Happy Birthday and what a lovely dress you made for it, looks like it fits just great from here.

Carolyn said...

What a stunning dress! This print and these colours look gorgeous on you. And personally, I don't think hand stitching marks as a fail at all! if the fabric is calling out for a hand finished hem, then so be it! I love hand-stitching.
Happy birthday Reethi!

Jean C. said...

The dress is lovely!
Now... might I recommend learning to use your hem stitch! You would really be surprised how quick and nice it makes hemming! Really... once you get the hang of it... (which at least with mine) you will wonder why you didn't learn sooner!
Happy Birthday! Or soon to be...

cidell said...

This looks lovely on you. The colors just pop and the fit is on point!

Debby said...

This is a lovely dress, the style really suits you. I am inspired to get more me-sewing dne.

SEWN said...

Gorgeous!!! and happy belated birthday!