Ever get part way through a pattern and realize something doesn’t make sense? You don’t have meters of extra fabric to cut it differently or in this case, you can’t just drop by the fabric store for new notions because they aren’t open for store shopping. In these cases, I adopt a ‘get ‘er done’ attitude and that’s where I learn a lot about what is possible. Does it look perfect when I am done? Ummmmm probably not but it probably looks a lot better than the mass produced dress someone else is wearing… or I hope.
That is exactly happened with Very Easy Very Vogue pattern V9265. Some of the issues were my lack of patience, some the pattern design and some were just due to not having access to a proper fabric store with the ability to buy notions.
See that glass of wine in my hand? I really needed it after this sew. Let us start with the fabric, it said I could use Velveteen and I found it but it was really expensive per meter at Marshall’s fabric in Winnipeg so I passed as it would have been $80 for just the fabric. I was at Fabricland and they had ‘Velveteen’ in their clearance section at $12/meter and I bought it without a thought. Hmmm…this was a critical error as the velveteen the pattern seemed to ask for is a cotton blend with no stretch, the one I got was polyester with a bit of stretch. I learned that the cushion of the velvet can move under my presser foot…but add some stretch in there and it was a colossal mistake. Although the stretch came in handy for Problem #2.
I cut the 18, like I usually do (I usually take it in a bit where needed) but once I got the bodice done and was ready to attach the skirt…something was really wrong. They were not the same size. I checked the pattern pieces and the instructions and it seems this was intentional to get a nice tight waist. They tell you to slit the pieces on the skirt and stretch….holy kaka, this just didn’t work for me, no amount of pulling was going to get it to match. I had to take in the bodice and I have a bigger waist so this was a big gamble. The only saving grace here was that velvet had some stretch in it. I wasn’t sure how the lining would work but I was prepared to using facings in the dress if I couldn’t line it.
Finally, the last issue was the zipper. I basted it and put it in 3 times, using a regular zipper and it just wouldn’t work. The velvet slid all over. I can put in a zipper any which way but not on this fabric. I decided to try an invisible zipper with my new invisible zipper foot for my ancient Husqvarna machine. I spent a good hour adjusting every dial to get it to center, the part wasn’t made for my machine so it took a long while to get everything just right. It works but not easily. At one point I pulled out my old Elnita to sew the zipper but …it needs servicing so it was a no go. 3 days later….I realized I also had an issue with the new bobbins I had ordered for my machine. They work…but are not exact. After figuring out you had to flip them to get them to work I was ready for the invisible zipper. But the only one I had on hand was really old….from the 70’s or earlier. I can’t buy a new zipper because the stores are closed here and Amazon is faster than curbside pickup but it takes a while. This zipper has kinks, it’s stiff and the fabric is stiff. It is not a great zipper in anyway. After 2 attempts, I got it in. Is it perfect? Ummm no. It matches at the waist but the top is uneven. For the time being I put a button closure at the top back to cover the slight irregularity. At some time in the future, I will replace that zipper with a good one that isn’t older than me.
In the end I got my party dress for 2020! I struggled with it even though it didn’t have too many pieces but it really taught me that if there is a will there is a way…and also, that designer patterns are sometimes easier than ‘very easy’ because they are designed better. Overall, I like the look of the dress but I did not like the way the pattern was designed. Who the heck thinks to make the waist of the dress smaller on one pattern piece?
Style Sewciety 