Confession: I don’t like cherries. Not for eating, anyway.
What I DO love are cherry prints, though (or any fruit, for that matter!). It probably makes me look like a total asshole wearing a fruit I won’t even eat (I’m currently having flashbacks to my high school days, back when I used to make fun of kids for wearing band tshirts of bands they’d never actually listened to. No, really, who does that?? High school kids, that’s who), but you know what? No fucks given. Go ahead and judge me.
Whatever, anyway, my point is – I like wearing cute prints. Cute prints can be hard to find though – and when you do find them, at lot of them tend to be printed on, like, quilting cotton. Or worse – silk chiffon (seriously, who the fuck is buying up all those crazy silk chiffon prints? I am so intrigued!). I feel like 3/4 of my sewing time is spent just trying to source cute prints that are printed on the type of fabric I actually like to sew and wear.
Sooo, with that being said – I was pretty excited to find this Anna Sui cherry print at Mood Fabrics. Not only is it basically the cutest fabric in the history of ever – it’s silk crepe! So glorious! Unfortunately for y’all, they are also completely sold out of it. Whomp whomp.
Immediately after securing a length of this stuff for my very own, I zeroed in on Vogue 1395 as my dream match pattern. Pretty cute, right? Vogue has really been stepping up their game with the last pattern release – as in, they had more than one wearable pattern this time (yay, Vogue!). Vogue 1395 intrigued me with it’s loose fit and strange overlay, and I thought the casual shape would look really nice with such a sweet fabric.
Sewing up this pattern (and fabric, for that matter) was pretty easy, although I did make some changes to the construction. The pattern calls for you to sew everything with a double-stitched seam – as in, literally two lines of stitching next to each other, and then finished. I couldn’t wrap my head around that one – why? for extra… strength? what? – so I compromised and used french seams for construction. I figured – hey, it’s technically a double-stitched seam, right? Plus, a french seam just looks way more elegant than a serged seam.
The armholes and neckline (sorry, didn’t take a photo, whoops) are finished with self-made bias binding (aka SILK CREPE bias binding). It looks really beautiful, if I do say so myself. It was also way less of a bitch to sew on than you’d think – despite the fact that we’re talking about bias silk crepe here. I used a lot of steam and manhandled that shit into submission. I also didn’t follow the directions on the pattern for adding the binding – they kind of had a weird method of construction, and I have a better one (sorry, but it’s true. Stay tuned for a photo tutorial during the OAL!). One big awesome plus is that the bias binding is applied flat, so you don’t have to worry about it stretching out and not fitting the area it’s binding – you can just cut the excess off! Hells yeah!
Size-wise, I cut the smallest size, which is an 8 in this design (anyone know why some patterns go all the way down to a 4 and some stop at 6 or 8? What’s up with that?). It fits ok – the arm holes, though. Whoa. Those arm holes were TERRIBLE. When I say they showed my bra, I don’t mean they just showed the very top edge. I mean they showed the ENTIRE SIDE of my bra (and a little bit below it!). Suffice to say, the arm holes were way too low! The back overlay does cover some of that, but it’s a moot point once you start moving around.
I fixed my dress in the most MacGyver way possible – I just pulled the shoulders up and gave them a new seamline. This was actually really easy thanks to my french seams, haha! I ended up pulling off about 1.5″ from the top of the shoulders – which yeah, that’s a lot! – and now the dress fits a hell of a lot better. The neckline obviously raised a lot too, but that’s ok – I kind of like it higher, I think it looks better with the shape/length. Plus, now I can bend over without fearing the gapeage.
Trying to figure out how the dress is pieced together? It’s really simple – there’s a front and back bodice (unlined, so make sure your fabric is opaque!), and the back bodice has an overlay that is only stitched down about 4″ at the center back. The slightly curved skirt is lined (I used china silk), and there is an elastic waist.
The back overlay crosses the side seams and ties at the front, which gives the dress a little bit of shape (that you can totally loosen after you’ve eaten a bunch of cupcakes because, fuck yeah, elasticized waist). Keep in mind that the wrong side of the ties show – it’s just a rolled hem all the way around, no lining – so you want to make sure you use a fabric that is relatively the same on both sides. The wrong side of this fabric is a little lighter than the right side, but it’s hardly noticeable.
What else did I change about the instructions? Well, I hated the way they had you hem stuff – lots of basting, pressing, and trimming. BOOORING! I used my rolled hem foot and finished much faster (with better results to boot!). I also could not FOR THE LIFE OF ME figure out how they had you attach the shoulders of all 3 layers. It just plain didn’t make sense, and I was french seamin’ that shit anyway (this was before the Armhole Disaster), so I did it my way and used french seams. Best way, I think!
Per usual, I threw both silks in the washing machine on cold before cutting, so now I don’t have to dryclean this guy! Yay! Talk about a casual day dress. I did notice that the black faded quite a bit on this silk crepe – so it’s more like, I dunno, light black or dark grey – but I don’t even care. It’s worth it just to know that I don’t have to schlep out to the dry cleaner every time I want to wear this. Which, btw, I would never do, because dry cleaning is the worst. Not because it’s terrible for the environment (although I reckon that’s a factor), but because I actually have to GO somewhere and PAY for it. Ew! Nope!
Anyway, cute new summer dress for meeee! I love it when my casual duds crossover into involving luxe fabrics. THIS, my friends, is why I sew.
As a sidenote – my pal Beth is gearing up to release her first pattern, and she needs testers! I know a lot of y’all were dying to dip your toes in to the tester pool, so here’s your chance to shine! Check out this blog post to see the skirt pattern in question (it’s super cute – I was actually on the list to test this, but my schedule this month has blown up all crazy so I had to bow out) and go ahead, throw your name in the hat 🙂 You know you wanna 🙂
LLADYBIRD 
It’s totally cute! And oddly, I was literally JUST googling this pattern to try to find examples of it made up, since I was thinking of using it. Your tips will be very helpful if I go with this pattern! (Also, I hate cherries too!)
It’s a good one, just beware of those arm holes! I might even go so far as to suggest to make a mock-up of the bodice (do the entire thing though – including the overlay. A pain, I know, but it’ll save ya some tears in the end!).
Haha- don’t worry I don’t think you need to be an avid muncher of cherries to wear a cherry print ! Its nothing like the band thing which is very very odd behaviour- what if you found out later you hated the band?! Strange!
If I’m wrong tho and your clothes should reflect stuff you like to eat then I am in serious need of a banana print!- anyone seen one lately?! 😉
Ps totally love the shape of the dress and completely with you on finding cute prints on good fabric being tricky. Crepe is the best- great find! 🙂
omg I WISH I could find a banana print fabric! That would be amazing. There are simply not enough fruit prints in the world, I fear.
Pretttttty sick dress! Love it!
You had me at “elastic waist”. I remember in highschool I went through a cherry print everything phase… Your dress looks much better than I did then! 😉
I did the cherry phase too in high school! So much, my Mamaw still buys me anything and everything she can find that has cherries printed on it (clothes, dishes, decor – everything!). It’s really cute and also a good thing I still love a good cherry print 😉
I’m the same: I hate the taste of cherries but would kill my own mother (not really) to get my hands on cherry print anything! Needless to say, I think this dress is just perfect. You look fab! x
Super cute dress. Ahhh good fabric is hard to find! Silk crepe binding that is awesome. I was laughing when I read about the binding submission!! A good way to start my day 🙂 Thanks.
It’s possible that I may have a “friend” who is one of those people buying the fruity chiffon fabric as well as the skully chiffon fabric.
Ooh, maybe your “friend” would like to show us what is being made of these fabrics?? 😉 Come on, spill!
They’re sitting in my “friend’s” stash because she remembered that she hates working with chiffon after she bought them!
I sewed this up a few weeks ago too (http://denversews.com/2014/05/22/vogue-1395-back-in-the-saddle/), but in a jersey. I raised the neckline, but I think I prefer how you took the whole shoulders up because the back neck rides weirdly low. (And it looks that way on the vogue website too.)
I’m curious how yours feels after wearing it all day? I liked it at first, but after wearing it all day I felt like it had the same issues as the “walkaway dress” with the weight of the back causing the shoulder seams to pull farther and farther back on the shoulders over time. And then when the whole thing shifts to the back, the ties around the waist loosen up and the waist starts looking droopy and the elastic waistline shows. Maybe it’s because I made it in a heavier fabric? If yours doesn’t do that I may consider making it again in a rayon challis.
Yeah, the back on mine was really low and droopy too until I raised the shoulders. So weird and not comfortable at all! I’m glad it’s fixed now. I love how yours turned out – such a pretty print!
I’ve worn mine a couple of times and I have no issues with it pulling around or being uncomfortable. I wonder if yours is doing that because the shoulders need to be raised as well? I also keep my waist ties knotted pretty tight (except after I’ve had a giant meal, heh heh), aaaand my fabric is very lightweight, so I’m guessing your skirt is probably just really heavy. Try it in a lighter fabric, raise those shoulders, and see if that fixes the problem!
Thanks for the feedback! The skirt is pretty light, but the back is double layered and then I lined the ties as well so I think I made the back too heavy compared to the front. I’m also short waisted so maybe that adds to the waistline moving around. I’ll make it again in a lighter fabric, but maybe I can salvage the plaid one by bringing the shoulders up. I do really like that fabric.
So so cute!
Before I get to my comment, it feels so great to have the time to be on top up on my sewing blogs again! I missed ya, Lauren! Moving has taken up a huge portion of my time, but I’m back!
Double stitched seams? Why on earth would they advise such a thing? Are they on drugs? Must be.
Question – you said that you pre-washed your silk so that you didn’t have to take it to the cleaners. Can you expand upon this more? I’ve never heard of this. Love learning new tidbits.
Yay finally! I missed you, Maddie!
I prewash my silks the same way I prewash all my other fabrics – serge the edges, throw it in the wash on cold, and then throw it in the dryer on medium. That’s literally it! It does fade the color out slightly, and it will remove any sheen you have to your fabric (as well as sizing – look at my OAL fabric post if you want to see what happens when you machine wash silk shantung. It loses it’s sheen and softens up and it’s kind of amazing), but that’s totally fine with me as long as it means I don’t have to dry clean haha. I’ve done this with silk crepe, china silk, silk jersey, and silk dupioni and I’ve loved all the results so far!
I have very little experience with silk, so I’m not the best to give any tips, but people who are smarter than me have told me that silk isn’t as fragile as many people (I) think, at least when it comes to ironing. If you don’t want to machine wash your silk, you can give it a fairly good ironing and steaming, that should shrink the fabric so it won’t shrink later. You should avoid getting drops of water on silk though, the stains might never go away. (I recently sewed a tunic for a client from designer silk. I almost crapped my pants when I saw the price tag. Needless to say, it was not a relaxing project!)
Thanks Lauren. I’ve done this with crepe de shine and I love the mottled appearance it has afterwards.
Also, I’m looking forward to that bias binding tutorial. It’s one of those details I’ve never mastered.
Oh, and glad to be back!
Love it!! I can’t wait to make up this dress, it’s at the very top of my pattern pile. The cherry print looks great!
I like cherries… and I like your dress! I have been carrying this pattern around looking for the right fabric. Nice to see it made up and looking pretty on someone! (I totally off to throw my silk in the wash- I HATE dry cleaning too for the same reason!)
it turned out so cute! The shoes are so perfect too. I’m with you, cherries are cute, but I don’t care for the actual fruit.
This is a cute dress and soooooo you!
I so know what you mean… I’m doing endless searching for pineapple or watermelon print on either swimwear lycra or cotton sateen… no luck finding it though.
Loving this dress on you, who cares if you eat cherries or not!
Wow. I really love this dress! I love sewing mostly indie designers but I have a large bust and a wider waist and to be honest I just don’t look good in the retro type dresses. This looks like something I’d wear a lot. Thanks for posting….
I like the Big 4 patterns from time to time, just gotta keep an eye on that sizing 🙂
I cook with veggies I don’t eat, for my soups. So I understand completely. Loving the fabric and dress.
I wonder if Vogue reads your post.
Pretty sure they totally do! 😛
Thanks for the tip on pre washing silk and the tips on the armholes, I am totally going to try this one when it is summer here.
It’s an AWESOME summer dress, do make one!
I hate cherries, too! That Witches of Eastwick vomit scene totally killed them for me as an edible food. But you’re dress is super awesome and that’s a great tip about washing that silk – I hate dry cleaning too.
This is really, really cute! This pattern is on my wishlist and I am so glad to hear a review of it. Great job as always.
you are an absolute cherry bomb in this.
and i’ve heard that starting fit fixes at the shoulder is the way to go– i feel like i read that from a guru– like better than a swayback, etc…
at least that’s what i tell myself 😉
Hey, I’ll take it! 🙂 ha!
Wow. I hated the pattern design when I saw it on the Vogue page, but on you it looks great! They should exchange the model picture witgh yours, much more advertising 🙂
I’ve been saying for yeaaars that they should let me do their pattern styling! Or at least overlook the process and make sure the fabric and fit are good choices haha 🙂
I would vote for you 🙂
i also do not get why all the pretty prints come on silk chiffon. what am i supposed to sew them into? i have the most beautiful 1.5m of gold silk chiffon with large gold dots in jacquard weave at home. i am totally enamored with it, but chiffon?? what pattern do i make? i think i’ll make two grainline scouts and wear them in rotation. gold silk everyday!! haha.
sorry, not sorry for the rant 😉 anyways, you always have such a great eye for cool patterns. i would not have looked twice at this one from the envelope, and there you are with a dress i want to steal off your back. lucky for you i live on the opposite side of the world!
Omg that gold silk chiffon sounds AMAZING! You are lucky that you live on the opposite side of the world, because I’d totally try to sneak that out of your stash haha 🙂
Your dress is great…and I’m reliving the pain from 2 weeks ago when I used some lightweight chambray (yard sale!) to make it up. Instead of doing the shoulder adjustment as you did I shortened the bodice by about 1.5″ before cutting. It’s ok but I still have some armhole gape. The thing is that in the fabric I used my dress looks like scrubs. boohoo. I was thinking of using it to experiment with the shibori dying technique. Wish I had used silk or something like it!
Oooh, I hate that! I used similar scrub-looking chambray to make pants once, and I can’t bear to wear them anymore because they just look so much like fucking pajamas hahaha. I’d totally try some shibori dying – maybe you can save it?
I know this post is a couple days old; I’m hoping you have the time to answer a question about French seams. What do you do when you want a French seam below a lapped zipper? Do you “french” it right up to the lower edge where the zipper will stop, cut the seam allowance to accommodate pressing it open above, and insert the zipper as usual. I’m working with a sheer fabric, and it just occurred to me this morning, I would want French seams. It’s only a skirt with two side seams.
No post is too old for me to answer a question on 🙂 I actually use invisible zippers with my French seamed garments – I personally just think the subtlety of an invisible zipper looks better with those kinds of delicate fabrics (plus, it’s easier to sew than trying to get a nice lap). What I do is exactly what you described – I french up to where the zipper stop should go, then I clip the seam allowance and insert the zipper. You can serge the zipper seam allowances, or turn them under and stitch if you want them to look more like French seams. I am assuming this would work with a lapped zipper as well. If you try it, let me know because now I’m totally curious!
Of course I like the dress, but my heart was very happy when I saw the gift I gave you on your wall 🙂
Girl, OF COURSE! I love that thing- right after Christmas was over, I took it off the tree and put it on the wall so I could enjoy it year-round 🙂 It’s by the light switch so I can see it aaaall the time 🙂
At least you can find prints in silk – here they’re only available in polyester fabrics (and a lot of polyester chiffon) – srsly I don’t want that against my skin.
That is super cute on you, Lauren! Now off to look at our instructions…
This is gorgeous, Lauren! Looks particularly awesome with your hair colour. Perfect, in fact! xx
Lovely Llauren, I need your advice! I bought the pattern and I have a beatiful aztek rayon and I REALLY want these two to make a couple. BUT, the left side of the fabric isn’t nice and you mentioned that the left side will show at the binding things. Do you have any idea how I could adjust the pattern/construction? Any tip would be highly appreciated!
Haha, the two LL in Lauren! Sorry, my brain is funny today!
Hmmm, the only thing you really can do is line the ties so the right side shoes on both sides! Which you can definitely do, but make sure it doesn’t make your fabric too heavy and affect the pretty drape (if the rayon is lightweight enough, 2 layers should be fine).
Thanks for the tip! I also had the concern that the ties would end up too heavy. Then I also realized that I had bought the pattern in the wrong size range and those “friendly” ladies at the local shop won’t exchange it. The solution – I put the pattern onto the pile and started another Anna dress…
Thanks anyway for your help!
Hi Lauren, can you tell me if you wrote a blog post on the bias binding for the arms and neck? I’m trying to make this and the facing instructions are about to turn my head inside out and I was just going to do something more standard and read your post so wanted to ask what you did more specifically. Thx for any tips! Taken my blog down for a bit but I’m notesink on Instagram.
Here’s my post on my method for sewing bias facing. It’s not written specifically for this particular pattern, but it’s the method I use and I find it works quite well 🙂