picking up from where i left off, still working on vogue 1227, aka my birthday dress. actually, i almost gave up on this dress completely… and in all honesty, we’re still not out of the woods on that one. but i carry on, mostly because i’d feel really bad wasting this barkcloth. ughhh.
this pattern: hardest pattern i’ve ever sewn. not because it is complicated, but there are SO.MANY.ALTERATIONS. and i am not normally one with a difficult body to fit – a FBA, sometimes i reduce the shoulders, and i usually end up reducing the waist. i’m pretty sure i’ve redrafted this entire pattern at this point. ridiculous! after i was done with my redrafting, none of the pieces matched up at the top. this is not an error on my part – i only adjusted the sides, not the top of the pattern pieces. of course, this was after i already cut out + interfaced 30+ pieces, so now i’ve just been piecing bands to add to the tops to make everything match.
oh, and the whole thing cuts so low, i can’t wear a bra with it. that may or may not have been the pattern’s intention, but i like wearing bras. so i had to add ruffles to the tops of the boobie cups.
after piecing the bodice together, testing the ruffles.
i don’t know how this happened, but i managed to match up the flowers perfectly on one side.
i think the bodice shell is finished now. in addition to sewing on ruffles, i sewed 1/4″ selvedge to the inside of the cups, slightly gathered, so they would cup to my chest & not gape all over the place.
bodice side
i wasn’t gonna show y’all this, but whatev – check out how messy the inside of the bodice is! i sewed & ripped & sewed sooo many times; there are threads everywhere! the entire bodice is interfaced, & there is boning under the cups just like in a bra.
this will all be covered with the lining, jsyk.
another adjustment i made – i had to add a little patch between the cups to make the middle match up. see that seam? it was that much off! of course, it looks really shabby now, but i will probably just make a little bow to cover it with.
here’s the top band i had to add to the sides/back so i could wear a bra (and make it match up with the tops of the cups). i topstitched so at least it looks like it’s supposed to be there.
so now that the bodice is finally done, i got the skirt pieces put together. pretty weird assembly instructions on this thing – they want you to sew the lining to the skirt right sides together at the bottom, turn right-side-out, and then understitch… just like sewing lining into a bodice. not that i’m complaining – there are two skirts, and that would be a LOT of hand-hemming. just thought it was interesting. i hope i can get the invisible zipper in there, since i had to sew up the skirt back. who am i kidding, i’ll either macguyver that shit in there or use a regular zipper. i am SO OVER this dress at this point!
LLADYBIRD 
you might be having a rough time with this dress, but you’re going to look adoooorable in it. it’s so cute so far!
“I’ll either MacGuyver that shit in there or use a regular zipper.”
Love it! And completely understand the sentiment. Just know that it looks lovely, and after it’s done, you’ll love it. If you can ever stand to look at it again. 😉
Time to write a scathing review to Vogue.
Love the fabric love the bodice. Girl this is worth it.
I started muslining this dress too. I ended up doing three muslins before tabling it until the summer (when I would be out of school). I still plan to attack it again though.
Actually, I have the opposite issue with this dress that I don’t want to have to wear a bra with it and that seems to be what is causing my muslin issues. Clearly this pattern has a hex on it.
I love your ruffle addition!
this actually makes me feel a lot better… i was starting to think i was sewing illiterate because of this damn pattern. i want to see yours when it is finished!
Oh my goodness, you’ve done so well with it!! Good job you kept going! And with the matching side flower, I’d totally take credit for doing that on purpose, you deserve it with all the changes you’ve had to make.
I am going crazy trying to get the bra part right on this dress! It is such a pain… and I am working with polyester! ugh!
what kind of boning did you use under the bra cups?
just some standard lightweight sew-thru boning with casing. i actually bought the package at an antique store – it was something like 50 years old haha 🙂
Wow..! So you just pretty much sewed it where regular underwire would be? I never thought of that 🙂
me neither! i was actually pretty impressed haha
SO happy I’m not the only one struggling with this pattern! For some reason, the bust is just kicking my butt… The cups aren’t fitting where into the bottom of the bodice (does that make sense?) so I’m really getting frustrated! Nice to see that there is hope for me yet.