I bet you know what is coming, yes? Another Vogue 8728.
This fabric is called “Percy’s Leaf” — and yes, it’s Liberty.
I love these stony greens:
And the back view:
I always intended to make an 8728 in full-on silk (I did make one in silk-cotton) but I never got around to it. I’m still on the lookout for a casual-ish pattern to use with silk, something like Simplicity 1801:
Thoughts?
I hope you’re aren’t tired of Vogue 8728 just yet … this one is my absolute favorite one:
I’ve posted about this one before … it’s Liberty Mark.
I even have a pair of shoes in Liberty Mark that match this dress.
Looking at this dress makes me so happy. I think I might wear it again this week.
I have a skirt made from this fabric as well, if by “have” you mean “it’s waiting at the bottom of the fix-it pile and will probably turn into crude oil before I get to it.” I also have a tiny bit of this fabric left over (might have to hit up that Shaukat link up above) in this colorway, and some in a bright pink poplin (that was part of the Liberty/Target collaboration, and that I found completely by accident in a NYC fabric store).
I still have some Vogue 8728s still to show you, including this one, which was the first one I made.
I am such a huge fan of mixed green-blue prints, like this one:
Side zip … eh:
And the back:
I love this dress, but honestly, if you’re going to go look at a dress today, go look at jorimoo’s Thesaurus Dress!
Well, well, well, what do we have here? Another Vogue 8728:
This is Liberty First Prize, which is one of my favorite prints.
I love the navy/khaki/camel colorway here, although I find it difficult to find things to match it in my black/gray/red-heavy wardrobe. (I’ve also made a dress in this same design, but in the maroon colorway.)
This back photo turned out a bit fuzzy, sorry about that. (There’s a better picture of it here.)
And in The Hundred Dresses (the book) news — I’ve just seen its first library recommendation! Thank you, Brittany Adams, of the Calloway County Public Library!
Another Vogue 8728:
This isn’t my favorite of the 8728s, but it’s the one I wear the most. It’s really versatile.
I usually wear this (wait for it) with a cardigan, but it also looks nice over a thin long-sleeved scoopneck t-shirt and leggings (and ballet flats), or by itself with bare legs and black sandals. If I wear it with leggings it looks better with a longer, more vest-like sweater.
I end up wearing this with a black or a red cardigan although I’m always on the lookout for a cardigan in *exactly* this shade of grayish teal. If you know of one, shout out, okay?
This fabric is Liberty, but I can’t find/remember the style name …
And now for a little flashback … remember the Vogue 8728?
This is in a Liberty print called “Mike” (and I just bought some more in the gray colorway, because I really love this print). Don’t you? (It also comes in a bright green …)
Here’s the side zip:
And the back:
I haven’t been wearing these 8728s that much lately — I’m not sure why. I might have OD’d a little on them last year, I made a LOT of them (<–foreshadowing) and wore them constantly. They are really easy to wear — throw on a cardigan and flats, or a cardigan and boots, or a cardigan and [insert footwear here] and you are good to go.
I’m always on the lookout for a good simple dress pattern that makes up well in lightweight cottons, is amenable to being worn with round-neck cardigans, and allows for capacious pockets. (Someday I will take a photo of everything I’ve carried in my pockets all day …) (Please feel free to send your candidates c/o this address.)
If you’ve ever wondered what Vogue 9929 would look like in Tetris fabric, consider your curiosity satisfied:
After realizing that there was probably no way to salvage yesterday’s dress, I decided to try for Tetris Dress 2. This time I prewashed the fabric with dye fixative, and I think the results are MUCH better:
You’re still never going to get a deep deep black from digitally printed fabric, I think. But that lessens the contrast (SLIGHTLY) with my not-especially-invisible purple zipper:
I used hem facing tape to help weigh down the hem, which was necessary because the fabric’s a bit lightweight. (And a Tetris dress should have a solid hem, don’t you think?)
Here you can see it finished:
And … the back:
I would say that this is probably my last Tetris dress for a while, but who knows? I should also mention here that I do not make these dresses commercially, but if you do a quick Etsy search you should find several people who WILL sell you a Tetris dress of your very own!
(Disclosure … Spoonflower uses the Wordnik APIs — you can read more about it here — but no money changes hands and I was a customer of Spoonflower before they began using the Wordnik API.)
So, remember the Tetris Dress? In case you don’t remember … back in 2006 I idly remarked that someday I’d love to have Tetris fabric, so that I could make a border-print Tetris dress. Then, in 2009, the extremely awesome (and cool) Jenny at Chronically Uncool made some Tetris fabric with Spoonflower. A few months later … this dress happened.
I should really go check how many people find my blog after googling “Tetris dress”, shouldn’t I? It’s still one of the dresses I get the most emails about. (I wore it to give a short talk at the Web 2.0 Summit.)
Here’s a closer look at the very-80s-blue front facings:
Here’s the back … I almost didn’t get that yellowy-greeny piece to clear the middle back seam.
This pattern is Vogue 9670, which I’ve made quite a few times. Here’s the side zipper:
The bright blue pockets:
And, of course, the most important part — the border.
I don’t wear this that much anymore, because the fabric wasn’t entirely colorfast … there’s fading on the skirt:
And on the bodice:
And especially at the front waist seam:
Now when I buy digitally-printed fabric I wash it first with this color fixative stuff from Dharma (it is extremely poisonous and has a super-scary label, but it works …) and I haven’t had as many problems with fading since trying this trick. (I don’t do a separate soak, just running it through the regular wash seems to do the trick.)
I miss wearing this dress, though, because it always gets a great reaction (and standing offers of demonstrations of affection, it seems). Is there anyone who doesn’t love Tetris?
(And … we’re halfway done with a-hundred-dresses-for-The-Hundred-Dresses! If you’re just joining us, please check out the links to the book here.)
I’ve held off on posting this dress for some time, first of all because the photos are fuzzy:
Which may be because the fabric itself is fuzzy:
It’s supposedly Liberty (when I bought it from Fabric.com the invoice called it “Liberty Of London Seymour Poplin Everyboby Burgundy”) but it’s not Tana Lawn, and it’s not really poplin. It’s not very nice compared to either, I’m afraid. I’m wondering if the print was licensed. It has a kind of rough feel, like a cheap sheet. The fabric is also available from Shaukat, so I’ve been tempted to reorder it, as I really like the pattern. (I like this colorway, too.)
The zipper turned out nicely, though:
Here it is from the back. Obviously, the scribbles make my camera lose focus. It’s like a secret power!
The other reason I’ve held off on posting this one is that I couldn’t remember what pattern I used to make it! After a little sewing-room archaeology (remember that scene in Temple of Doom? The one with the big rock? That’s what it’s like digging stuff out of my sewing room) I thought it was this one:
But now I think I’m still wrong. The collar is round, not pointed, and the skirt is pleated, not gathered. What do you think? I will have to keep searching …
One more Simplicity 6894, okay?
These are the best tucks of the three dresses, but you can’t really see them because this is Liberty Splash, which I bought in London in 2007:
I have NO IDEA what happened with this zipper. The waist seam is comically off:
And here’s the back:
And here’s a selfie from 2012!
(Cheap patent belt from H&M, Marc Jacobs patent loafers. Hair still wet — I hate blow drying with a passion, avoid it at all costs. The only time my hair is blow-dried is right after I have it cut.)
Thanks for all the pressing and fabric suggestions on yesterday’s dress … you might see another incarnation of this pattern sooner rather than later!
A Dress A Day 