I can't remember when I bought this pattern, but it was recently, and I was so excited about it … the simple bodice plus the pocketed skirt seemed PERFECT. I even made a special trip to Vogue Fabrics to buy black denim! But what I got was this:
Unfortunately, the neck is too low, and the soft pleats, when made in denim, stick out in a bunchy and annoying way.
And here's the back, with more bunchy pleats:
The pockets are edged with metal zipper (and now I'm not so upset that the waist seam didn't match exactly when I put in the side zipper):
And I used the last of my Futura-font fabric to make the neck facing (I figured it pops up every once in a while [yes, even with tacking it at the side seams and understitching] so I might as well make it fun):
I'm calling this an interesting failure, because, well, when you get right down to it, all failures are interesting. I love to know the "why" when things go wrong. This dress *should* have been a success: pockets, black denim, scoop neck, zippers … no construction issues, no fitting issues … and yet, when I tried it on, I went "Ugh!"
I think this may be salvageable, though. I can take the waist apart (another ugh) and change the pleats to darts. Not much I can do about the low neckline for this version, but I could make a note to bring it up an inch the next time (remembering to make a new facing pattern). I could also (again for next time) use a slightly lighter-weight fabric (this denim is just a bit too heavy). So perhaps this is not a total failure, but instead a very, very detailed (and possibly someday wearable) muslin …
A Dress A Day 
Could you add some lace material / font fabric to create a fake T-shirt look – this would raise the neckline. Did that make sense – I can visualise it but not explain…
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What were the recommended fabrics for this pattern? I’ll bet denim was not one of them. It needs a softer fabric, I believe – one that “moves”.
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That bottom part would make a great skirt as is. I think it’s the top that’s not working.
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Could you steal a stand-up collar piece from another dress, you know the ones that are two pieces, left and right, and meet in the middle tapering down? That would add neckline coverage as would a lace insert or a ruffle between the bodice and facings. Also agree with darts over pleats. They usually do nothing for me on the bodice. Also, the zipper detail is cool, but may make those pockets too heavy. Try piping or rickrack.
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I’m realizing why dresses in the flesh are so often disappointing when compared to their illustrations: women — real women — simply do not have waistlines that small. The waists of the women in the illustrations are always TINY. Unbelievably tiny. 99% of women don’t have that enormous measurement gap between their busts/hips and their waists. It’s a total fantasy.I’ve been noticing this about the pattern illustrations especially, because there are so many of them posted here; but you also see it in those lovely vintage fashion illustrations. Even with a girdle, you can only shave off so much from your middle (I know, I’ve tried!).So now when I look at an illustration, or at the dresses on certain eBay sellers’ va-va-va-voom mannequins, and think, gee, that’s a beautiful dress, I have to remind myself that I don’t have that body and that said dress will not look like that on me. (I don’t know if that’s what was going on here, just observing that it’s been my experience.)
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I agree with shannonann. Cut the bodice off and turn it into a skirt. The bodice, in denim, is too heavy IMHO. It just looks heavy. I like the zipper pocket detail.
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You know, washing that denim with heavy things like towels and jeans several times will soften it up right away. (I won’t suggest you follow the example of the industrial blue jeans agers and wash it with rocks, since you probably aren’t all that interested in buying a new washing machine just now.) The suggestion from Anonymous above about adding an insert to fill in the neckline might work as well. I usually wash my fabric before I cut it, and since I have a piece of embroidered denim awaiting attention at home, I think I’ll take this as a warning to wash it a few times more before touching it with scissors.
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The dress pattern reminds me of The Advance 8434 pattern you have about 3 or 4 posts down from this one. View #2 has some sort of collar attached to the scoop neck. Perhaps you could create that collar with a bit of a stand to help fill in the low neckline. Also, the view 3 on the same pattern handles the low neckline with a bit of ribbon. You may be able to hide the pleats with a wide belt or a sash around the middle (think duro jr. dress)
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Hello! Love your blog. I wanted to mention that Vogue Patterns is having a sale on it’s website that ends today-5.99 patterns. Most of them are 5.99. Have fun!
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Actually I thought the outcome is not as pathetic as you described. Maybe you to post it in Sew Retro to share?
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I guess I just don’t see what is so bad about it! I think it would be lovely if you added some decorative trim to the neckline and pockets like the original drawing, pair it with some some bright tights, an equally bright belt, and a pair of black stilettos and call it a Winter Dress.Then again, I like to funk-ify classy vintage dress styles like that, so that may not be your style, but I think it could still totally work.
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Maybe that’s why the pattern illustration has the chain trim detail? I actually like it as is — it looks like something you might wear in the prison laundry in an old movie about girls gone wrong.Sorry, too much TCM lately. But, I agree about changing the tucks to darts — it would shape the bodice better. I love the detail on the pockets.
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@ Lisa – I have the same problem about pattern illustrations! I am 5 feet tall with short legs, so the dress/jacket/top never looks the same on me as it does on the envelope. It’s so depressing!One thing I’ve read about (but, full disclosure, never tried myself) is using something called a croquis (see a short article here: http://www.taunton.com/threads/pages/th_125_051.asp) which is basically a paper model of your body. If you have one drawn on lightweight or tracing paper, you can then trace the important parts of the pattern design from the image on the envelope onto your body, to see how it will work out. Like I said, I’ve never done this, but I bet someone here has. Anybody? Has this prevented a serious fashion disaster for you?
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This is the exact same pattern that made me swear off scoop necklines forever. I’m a 32D and the alterations required to keep the neck from gaping to the point of public indecency are more work than I’m willing to invest. So yeah. No scoop neckline patterns for me.Hm. You know, this might be one of the patterns I sent you…probably because of the pockets.Lydia
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I love the skirt part could you salvage that by adding a waistband?I have to say it looks better than anything I could hope to make!
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I like the dress but agree that the pleats in that fabric are a little bulky. This is a problem I oftenhave – unable to visualize how a pattern would look in a particular fabric. I often choose too heavy fabric for the pattern. I do read the pattern suggestions but even after all these years will go, “Hmm. That might work.” yeah, I know. I live in a dream world. I think I would try darts then if that doesn’t work, make the bottom half into a skirt. It’s too nice to rag-bag it. Just my opinion, for what it’s worth.
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I think you should wear a chiffon scarf like they do with the regency dresses in Sense and Sensibility.http://janeausten.info/moviegowns/sands1995/Marianne/maribrown.jpg
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Huh. It must look a lot worse in person than it does in the photo because I rather like it! 🙂
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I like the look of the dress. Yes I would put in darts.I also think that the demin should have been washed a couple of times just to soften it up.I really do not think it looks bad at all. You wanted a simple dress and it is that. Maybe when you do make it again using a diffrent type of fabric you will see the dress you really want.I had a simple dress pattern. It was exactly what I wanted and when I had made it in my favorite floral print material, I hate it.It looked like something Mama would wear on Mama’s Family with vicky Lawrence. I was so disappointed! I never wore it. But I made the dress from a different fabric and it was the dress I dream it could be.
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The neck doesn’t look VERY low. Is it a matter of brastraps showing? Too exposed for the climate? Or just personal preference?How about raising the neckline by making another piece of the black denim (or perhaps a contrast fabric), that would echo the neckline but a couple inches higher and sew that in underneath?
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Fix the waist pleats and wear it for gardening next summer. Everyone in your neighborhood will want a denim gardening dress!
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It definitely looks salvageable! Could you put in princess seams in the front? Or…add darts at the waist and soft pleats gathers in the middle of the neckline…don’t give up on this one. I think, it could work!
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lisa simeone – just have to say, just because 99% of ladies may not have such proportions, it doesn’t mean the remaining 1% aren’t “real”. I can appreciate seeing unusual body shapes being presented as the norm being highly irritating, but the ways the term “real women” are thrown about these days are just as insulting and annoying.(sorry! dont mean to be internet-mean!)
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I don’t think even one in one hundred women look like pattern wallets! But I do agree, ‘real’ is often as misnomer for ‘fat’ and I don’t like it. Thin women are perfectly tangible, in my experience!
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On the body shape issue: women in the 40s and 50s started wearing waist-cinchers and girdles in their teens, so many did have a 10-inch difference between their bust measurement and their waist measurement. I always marveled at the waist of my Mother’s wedding dress, which seemed impossibly small for a well-endowed woman, but photos of her and her friends all showed the same silhouette.Dior used to put his of-course-very-thin models in waist cinchers and then pad their hips and busts to get that impossible New Look hourglass, leading Coco Chanel to say “Dior doesn’t dress women, he upholsters them.”Women’s shapes have really changed over time as they’ve thrown out their girdles, become more athletic, grown taller, gotten breast implants, started driving everywhere and eating more, etc., etc.The vintage dresses from the 1930s I’ve looked at have all been unbelieveably narrow, especially through the hips, leaving me to wonder about what people got to eat during the Depression. It’s unrealistic to assume that a vintage pattern will fit a modern body (alas!). Anyway, I’ll take 60s trapeze dresses for $50, please.
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I wouldn’t call this dress a “failure”. It’s more like that plain gal in the old movies who lets down her hair and takes off her glasses and suddenly looks more “interesting” to Our Hero. You just need to apply a little “something” to bring out its best features. A belt? a neckline treatment? I imagined a zipper trim around the neckline. That’s only one possibility. Or something else creative. The dress’s bones are good.It’s not a failure, its a design opportunity.
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Ugh,I hate it when something doesn’t measure up to expectations. My guess is that the denim was just a tad too heavy for this project. Maybe a lighter fabric would have let the pleats behave. The seam with the Zipper is a bummer, a long time ago something like that would have had me relegate to the back of the closet or worse… By and large you do such great work normally, this just proves to the rest of us that you’re human.
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I like the idea of zipper trim around the neckline, then wear it over a turtle neck with matching tights. It’s winter, after all, layers are good. Turning the gathers into darts would decrease the bulk around the waist. I’d wear it with a belt.
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I haven’t read all the comments, but denim wouldn’t have been my choice of fabrics. A Liberty of London cotton, a swiss dot, a seersucker, something like your facing fabric, perhaps….what did the pattern say? The pleat problem is clearly caused by the thickness of the denim. I would also bet the mismatch of the waist seams is caused by the thickness and lack of give in the denim. If you want a crisp, heafty look, the heaviest fabric I might choose would be a dark navy weavers cloth. There also seems to be a problem with pressing. Does the denim have lycra in it? For now rip the bodice off and toss it. Cut a new waist band and have a really neat denim skirt with those great pockets featuring the zip trim.
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I haven’t read all the comments, but denim wouldn’t have been my choice of fabrics. A Liberty of London cotton, a swiss dot, a seersucker, something like your facing fabric, perhaps….what did the pattern say? The pleat problem is clearly caused by the thickness of the denim. I would also bet the mismatch of the waist seams is caused by the thickness and lack of give in the denim. If you want a crisp, heafty look, the heaviest fabric I might choose would be a dark navy weavers cloth. There also seems to be a problem with pressing. Does the denim have lycra in it? For now rip the bodice off and toss it. Cut a new waist band and have a really neat denim skirt with those great pockets featuring the zip trim.
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Erin, I think that denim, even lightweight, might have been a tad heavy for this pattern and honestly, these dresses with fitted waists were NEVER supposed to be worn without a belt. It’s intended to reinforce the seam AND it will softn those pleats you aren’t happy with. Self belt or contrast, it needs a belt. Just sayin’.
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I actually don’t think it’s that bad. Replacing the pleats with darts would help immensely. As for the too low neckline…could you wear a blouse under it. I’m thinking someithing with a cute peter pan collar…but maybe that’s too twee?
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Hi ErinI think this has been all said before but as I read your post I saw “denim” for the first time, looked at the illustration again and thought “ooh, is that going to work so well?” I love black denim but I don’t think it is the answer here. That said, if you make the dress a little more structured you may still pull it off. Re neckline, could you add a strip of bias (maybe the last tiny scrap of the facing fabric) to sit within the neck and fill it in a little?
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I agree with the suggestions for a dickey and a belt (I’m thinking obi-style). And of course, both made of the Futura-font, if at all possible. Otherwise, I agree with the make-it-a-skirt brigade.Thank you for posting about your ‘failure’ – most illuminating!
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Someone else mentioned something that I figured would work, or at least part of it! By washing it, with towels etc… it will soften it up quite nicely. Also, you might try pinning (temporarily)the shoulders to see if that may help with the neck line. If the pinning takes it to where you need it, then, you can take then in! If you work from the neckline towards the sleeve, and do a tapered to a point next to the sleeve… then you don’t have to take off the sleeve and re-do all that! Good luck! It really is a cute pattern.
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I think this dress is cute and par for the course for making a dress without a mock up first. I have done this so many times in the past! I turned them into my “homespun ” look!I would just put some darts in the front and wear a belt – its cute and denim softens up with wear. You can never trust an illustration – its an artists rendition in order to sell a product.
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Interesting the Kathleen Crowley would respond, as her post recently on her blog, really is very informative about this ‘vintage re-creation’ issue (http://kathleencrowley.blogspot.com/2008/09/vintage-patternsand-why-they-dont-turn.html)But what interests me most is that the pattern she shows in this post has an 2″ or 3″ wide band around the neckline–a perfect solution for filling in a low round neckline, in an historically appropriate style.
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Goofy suggestion, but here it is. What about adding denim loops around the neckline? Then thread a scarf through the loops and tie on one shoulder.
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I’d wait and remake it in a linen in summer. Navy would be nice, and you could wear it with one of those snazzy cardigans you love (can anyone say “yellow”??) in late spring, early fall, when you would want to be able to take the sweater off, but might need it in the cool morning/evening air?I think that the denim was too heavy, though..washing it might help, a bit, and either a matching belt or one in yellow or red…maybe patent leather? Hmmmmm….I’m seeing a terrific vintage matching purse/shoe/belt combo with this one…LOL…sorry for the ramble…hope it works out better next time!
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Hi Lisa Simeone – don’t fret about the “internet mean” poster. The fact is that the models during that period wore both padding in their bras and on their hips and were very thin. This gave them an hour glass figure. So not “real” even then!But as far as the dress goes, I find that if I think about the Dior “trick” and balance top and bottom and then give the illusion of a smaller waist, I get the same feel as the picture (even if I am bigger). Since I am large on top, I always add more skirt fabric as it gives more volume and use either a small belt or a cumberbund of matching (or counter) fabric. This is comfortable, gives me a wasit, and gives the impression of an hour glass.This dress could be saved (IMHO) if you either recut the skirt to make it fuller OR if you don’t have more fabric, took the skirt apart, created an “under skirt” in a contracting fabric and used the denim as an over skirt. Very 1950’s and it would give the pockets more give and you could use the same contracting fabric in a colar to raise the neckline.Alex
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Nothing about the dress, but Erin, I’ve wondered about trimming the pockets with zippers before. Don’t they scratch your hands when you use the pockets? I have zip-shut pockets on a few jackets, and they always hurt my hands.
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beckyw’s suggestion is really interesting – adds contrast and fixes any problems with the scoop neckline. I see what you mean about the pleats not working, and I agree (sorry!) that denim probably wasn’t the best choice, but bodice and skirt are recoverable if they’re removed from each other’s company and greater contrast added.I’m planning a summer dress in a similar style and I’m already thinking about some pattern mods like raising the waist an inch or two (shortwaisted) or neckline details to suit. Then there’s the pattern re-grading – I may have a very hourglass figure, but it doesn’t mean I have a ten inch waist!
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beckyw,Your denim loop and scarf idea is WONDERFUL!I’m losing weight and expect to find the neckline of a favorite dress getting too large and gaping by spring. I may try that to try to extend the wear before I have to give it up.
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I vote for the tab and scarf deal. I think that would look really great.I also think a number of trips through the washer and dryer (throw tennis balls in the dryer) would do wonders for the fabric.If you don’t want to take the entire skirt off and have to contend with redoing the zipper, you could rip the seam only where it is pleated. Then, form your dart and stitch the bodice and skirt back together.I do have to pick on you a bit, though. Some simple marking would avoid the misalignment at the waist. It doesn’t take long and is worth the effort.I think a belt is in order, too. You could make a cummerbund of the alphabet fabric and do a scarf in white or black.I think this is a very salvageable dress. But, if you just hate it all, turn it into a skirt and chalk it up to experience.
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Erin, did you pin-fit the pattern bodice to see where the neckline ends up? If you don’t, generally, you might want to next time you use a new pattern; it’s easier than the fix-it! You can raise the neckline with a matching piece; I’d pipe the seam where the two pieces meet, just to make it look as if I really *meant* to do that. Or you could cut down the sleeves, and make it a jumper – AFTER you make those bunchy gathers into darts. I have to say, gathering denim in the bodice area would never be my own first choice; it’s too sculptural a fabric for that, and I LOVE making denim dresses! But it is fixable.LisaSimeone, because you don’t have a 10″ bust/waist/hip difference doesn’t mean other people don’t. It doesn’t mean that they aren’t “real” women, either. It just means that you and they have different figures. And while Dior may have padded his models – and he did – Chanel chronically underpaid hers, and expected them to take lovers to pick up the economic slack, so: I’ll take Dior, because the padding, if needed, is less offensive a choice; and I’ll take Dior anyway, because I can wear his New Look cuts, and not Chanel’s. There are plenty of women with a 10-to-14″ B/W/Hip difference; they are the ones who can never find a doggone pair of jeans to fit, too. Even the women who aren’t busty may have that difference between their waist and hip measurements; those would be the pear-shaped among us. Just because it doesn’t fit your proportions doesn’t make it a total fantasy; read the measurements on the backs of the envelopes. Even without constricting undergarments, a lot of women can use those patterns as is, since the vast majority of vintage patterns actually have a 6″ bust/waist difference, and a 9″ waist/hip difference. Then they have to be altered by the women who DO have a 10″ B/W/H difference, since there are actually fewer patterns with those measurements.
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I love that skirt and think it is worth saving.I awoke with this dress on my mind! I envisioned it with a white linen top (neckline adjusted to meet your preferences) and a wide, black patent leather belt.Or I think you could play with the idea of making the white linen top to meet the pattern’s dimensions, adding a strip of the black denim to narrow the neckline. Your linen would need to be hearty for this idea, I think.
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I like Becky’s suggestion as well
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I give up!I DO have a 10-inch difference between my waist and bust/hip measurements. Most women don’t. But that wasn’t the point anyway.I never mentioned a measurement in my original comment. I only said that the illustrations on patterns were crazily exaggerated — they depict women’s figures with waaaaay more than a 10-inch difference between waist and bust/hips.Good grief. Talk about taking things out of context. I wasn’t impugning anyone’s figure or insulting anyone’s body type.
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I’m afraid it was still within context for your comment to be reacted against in the ways that it was; you mentioned that 99% of women dont have whatever. That still does leave 1% of people within the original, railed against “measurements”, who were then talked out of existance by the rest of your comment. I’m sure you didn’t mean to be insulting and I wasn’t assuming then that you were, but nevertheless, your comment *was* carelessly worded and thus casually dismissive.Please don’t feel that you’re thought a terrible villain. It’s surely wiser to note that bodies do come in a wide range of shapes and sizes when it seems that variety’s honour is at stake than to let any maybe-sort-of-possibly suggestions to the other way go by, and see even more of a THIS WAY IS NORMAL AND NO OTHERS assumption grow.
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I made a vintage denim dress and I found the same problems. Just too stiff of a fabric, even after I pre-washed it. I had lined the bodice in a crepe backed satin and noticed how nicely it laid with the darts. I’m going to revisit it next spring with a different fabric. Also, with dresses that I’m not happy with, I just turn ’em into skirts. It’s usually the bodice that doesn’t work so just cut the darn thing off and make a skirt.jilly
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Belt 🙂
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