5 years ago
I ordered this Metallic Woven Brocade, knowing I wanted to sew something suitable for holiday festivities. Even if those festivities include only my husband and I in our home. I wasn’t positive what pattern I would use, deciding to wait until the fabric arrived.
I choose Vogue 1798, a Rachel Comey design, as I liked the simplicity of the body of the dress with the emphasis on the sleeves. I do love a good statement sleeve! Plus, the dress is fairly loose-fitting and completely lined.
The fabric is fairly lightweight, and has a nice drape, but it does ravel. That meant I needed to choose something that was fairly loose-fitting (so there would be no stress on the seams). The metallic threads lend to the beauty of the fabric, but they can scratched slightly so a lined garment is best.
I used sharp pins and a new sewing machine needle - a size 10 universal Schmetz needle. If your pins and needle are not sharp, you may find them catching and pulling on the metallic thread design in the fabric.
To stitch the seams, I lengthened my stitch length to 3.5 mm. Depending on your machine you may have to play with the tension also. When pressing be sure to use a lower heat and/or press cloth or you could melt the metallic threads.
To help eliminate stress on the seams I went up a size in the waist and hip area. The dress has darts, and I was concerned about the stitching on the dart legs pulling on the fabric, so I fused strips of lightweight interfacing along the stitch lines before sewing the darts. There are pockets in this dress but I eliminated them due to the fabric.
There is a tie at the back that holds everything in place. Without it, those big sleeves will simply pull right off of your shoulders. The pattern calls for self-fabric ties, but this fabric isn’t appropriate for sewing narrow ties. I used a narrow grosgrain ribbon instead. My hair is long enough that they won’t be seen anyway. I will need to raise the V in the back slightly as the top of my bra shows.
The sleeves on this dress took some time! The fullness is created with pleats, and you will want to mark everything carefully. There are six small pleats on the lower part of the sleeve, and six larger pleats at the top. At the shoulder seam, two of those pleats cross over one another. My tip is to hand baste those pleats using silk thread. The silk thread will be much easier to remove than the general purpose thread used to sew the dress and will not leave any marks in the fabric.
By the way, the pattern piece for the sleeve is 36” wide! The sleeve lining is slightly smaller than the sleeve, and the two are stitched together at the bottom. Narrow elastic is then added to that seam allowance. Not only does that create that balloon shape at the bottom, but the lining is pulled to the inside out of sight.
Sewing this dress took time – and patience – but I think the end result is worth it!
#holidaysewing #rachelcomeydress #voguepatterns #vogue1798 #fabriclove #easytossew #minervamakes #minervamakers #sew #memade #sewinginspiration #sewingpatterninspo #sewsewsew #sharonsews #fashionsewing #sewistsofinstagram #sewover50 #dresspattern
I choose Vogue 1798, a Rachel Comey design, as I liked the simplicity of the body of the dress with the emphasis on the sleeves. I do love a good statement sleeve! Plus, the dress is fairly loose-fitting and completely lined.
The fabric is fairly lightweight, and has a nice drape, but it does ravel. That meant I needed to choose something that was fairly loose-fitting (so there would be no stress on the seams). The metallic threads lend to the beauty of the fabric, but they can scratched slightly so a lined garment is best.
I used sharp pins and a new sewing machine needle - a size 10 universal Schmetz needle. If your pins and needle are not sharp, you may find them catching and pulling on the metallic thread design in the fabric.
To stitch the seams, I lengthened my stitch length to 3.5 mm. Depending on your machine you may have to play with the tension also. When pressing be sure to use a lower heat and/or press cloth or you could melt the metallic threads.
To help eliminate stress on the seams I went up a size in the waist and hip area. The dress has darts, and I was concerned about the stitching on the dart legs pulling on the fabric, so I fused strips of lightweight interfacing along the stitch lines before sewing the darts. There are pockets in this dress but I eliminated them due to the fabric.
There is a tie at the back that holds everything in place. Without it, those big sleeves will simply pull right off of your shoulders. The pattern calls for self-fabric ties, but this fabric isn’t appropriate for sewing narrow ties. I used a narrow grosgrain ribbon instead. My hair is long enough that they won’t be seen anyway. I will need to raise the V in the back slightly as the top of my bra shows.
The sleeves on this dress took some time! The fullness is created with pleats, and you will want to mark everything carefully. There are six small pleats on the lower part of the sleeve, and six larger pleats at the top. At the shoulder seam, two of those pleats cross over one another. My tip is to hand baste those pleats using silk thread. The silk thread will be much easier to remove than the general purpose thread used to sew the dress and will not leave any marks in the fabric.
By the way, the pattern piece for the sleeve is 36” wide! The sleeve lining is slightly smaller than the sleeve, and the two are stitched together at the bottom. Narrow elastic is then added to that seam allowance. Not only does that create that balloon shape at the bottom, but the lining is pulled to the inside out of sight.
Sewing this dress took time – and patience – but I think the end result is worth it!
#holidaysewing #rachelcomeydress #voguepatterns #vogue1798 #fabriclove #easytossew #minervamakes #minervamakers #sew #memade #sewinginspiration #sewingpatterninspo #sewsewsew #sharonsews #fashionsewing #sewistsofinstagram #sewover50 #dresspattern
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