vogue 1161 – work in progress – + flea market finds

so i started trying to hammer out this vogue pattern over the weekend:

vogue 1161
i know it doesn’t really look like much, but there are a lot of neat design lines (WHY would you style the dress with leopard print fabric that hides the seaming and details? WHY?) that i thought would make a hot little cocktail dress. you know, for all those cocktail parties i don’t go to.

anyway, the fabric calls for something slinky and silky, so i went with this rich orange silk:

also, btw y’all, i hate sewing silk and i really am going to swear it off soon.
reasons why i hate silk:
– it unravels worse than anything i’ve ever seen before. just during the process of cutting and marking my fabric pieces, i have probably lost over 1/2″ on all seam allowances due to the silk unraveling and being a bitch. this dress prob won’t even freakin’ fit by the time i am done with it AUGHHH!!
– it is a bitch to cut – it shifts and slides and hates on me. i tried cutting on paper, i tried cutting one layer, i tried pinning the everloving hell out of it… it must be some kind of shape-shifter because it would NOT stay in place. the only thing i didn’t try was my rotary cutter – because, 1. i hate my rotary cutter; 2. the blades are dull; and 3. i hate my rotary cutter bc i don’t actually know how to use it – but my scissors are pretty freakin’ sharp soo i don’t know. anyway. cutting sux, y’all.
– ironing makes me sad. i learned very quickly that, even though my rowenta has a “silk” setting, it wrinkles and puckers the crap out of my silk and apparently i need to use a press cloth. whoops! the iron isn’t hot enough to totally flatten those dang seams, which is a bummer because i am an seam-pressing fiend every other day of the week.
– i had to buy a marking pen because my wax ~tailor’s pencil~ was too hard and bore a tiny hole in the fabric, crap.

but you know what? at least it is a pretty silk.

huh, i thought i took a picture of my work-in-progress, but i guess not.
here is my mock-up:

don’t you love my early-90s-luv twin sheet “muslin”? i should just wear this as a shirt.

the back looks wonky on the dress form, mostly because i hadn’t quite figured out how to place the knot. i eventually figured it out, though.

mine looks a little different… the knot is properly spaced, i gave the shoulder a 1″ seam allowance (instead of the standard 5/8″… for some reason they were too big). and those tucks on the bewbs have been turned into darts… the tucks looked pretty strange on me, like super long nipples or something.
oh, and the whole thing is shedding like crazy. UGH.

another vogue funny:

SPELLCHECK, VOGUE. SPELLCHECK.

now for flea market funsies!!

GOD I LOVE THE TENNESSEE FLEA MARKET.
i went on sunday afternoon… the best day to go, in my opinion, because everyone is trying to get rid of their stock so they practically give it away. i’m sure i would have a better selection if i showed up early on friday morning, but most of the stuff i want gets overlooked by the average person (not to mention i work on friday mornings) so i’m not really too concerned.

i bought a bunch of sewing supplies:

(a self-covered belt buckle kit!!)

i had forgotten about how awesome these things are. you can make iron-on transfers with them!!

yes, i already know how to sew and yes i have one too many “instructional” sewing books.

oh, and the patterns:

vogue 1587
i almost passed this one up, because i look really terrible in 60s-shift dresses, but then i saw the line drawing on the back:

I WANT TO BE HER.
also, this fell out of the envelope when i brought it home:

yay!

mccall’s 2173
clearly i will be making matching bathrobes for my roommate and myself.

simplicity 3538

simplicity 3061
this is my favorite one out of the batch

butterick 2380

butterick 9598
my second favorite

butterick 3415
ok, this one isn’t really “fun,” but i’ve been doing a lot of reading/learning on pattern fitting, drafting, and alteration, and i think this will be very helpful. basically, it is a super fitted shell that you make to fit exactly, and then you can use the alterations to alter future patterns without a bunch of guesswork. it has eight pages of instructions, so it might be a hot minute before i get around to working on it, but eventually. eventually.

final cost @ flea market: $13
😀 😀 😀

Tags: butterick, dress, mccalls, pattterns, simplicity, vintage, vogue, work in progress