I decided I needed a casual sort of dress for the variety of Christmas lunches I am going to eat my way through. I thought it should be light in case it’s hot, and loose enough to accommodate post Christmas lunch podge.
I opted for the DVF Vogue 1547 in some red bamboo jersey which has been lingering in my stash for around eighteen months.
Having made this pattern before, I was confident that all I had to do was to shorten it a little and the rest would fit pretty well. [later update: I forgot to mention both times I’ve blogged this dress that the pattern has a zip – a zip on a knit dress! Needless to say I jettisoned this and it so obviously doesn’t need one that I completely forgot that it is supposed to have one – I mention it here in case anyone else makes the dress and finds this post]
When I put the folded over fabric on the cutting board I could clearly see right the way through it and so I underlined it with a fine cotton knit from Potters Textiles. This makes the dress surprisingly heavy, and possibly not as cool as it might have been had I left out the underlining, but I do like the comfortable, luxurious feel that underlining gives. However, it added to my making difficulties as the dress uses a fair bit of fabric and I was manipulating two lots with different stretch qualities whilst trying to make sure that the hang was right.
Once again I inserted pockets, but this time added them from the outset. The red fabric is so flimsy that I struggled to get them to sit flat and don’t think they are my best ever pockets.
My only other issue was the hem. I let the dress hang for a week so that it would drop, given that a lot of it is cut on the bias. I then decided that I would cut the underlining to the fold of the hem to reduce the bulk and then coverstitched as the blind hemming produced a poor finish. All this worked well until I laundered the dress and then it became obvious that the red fabric stretched out a bit, whereas the underlining didn’t move, meaning that the hem went very peculiar. I considered removing the coverstitching, but opted to cut the underlining away from the hem and this has worked. I’m still not happy with the hem though and may unpick it. I also think I made the dress too short this time – doh!
The pattern has a self tie, which I made for the first version of this dress, but decided it was too narrow. For this dress I made it again but this time a little wider than the pattern. I like this better but still feel like a sack tied in the middle so have opted for a belt that my Mother-in-law gave me, which matches the dress perfectly. How clever is she??
Bottom line? This will be my go-to dress this summer and yes, I may even wear it on Christmas Day as it is the perfect dress for floating around in whilst eating Christmas delicacies.
I happened to wear this dress to our staff lunch and had to play Santa for the Secret Santa gifts. With the red outfit all I was missing was the beard and the boots…
The details: pattern is Diane von Furstenberg knit dress from the 1970s – Vogue 1547. Fabric is red bamboo jersey from Clegs in Melbourne, underlined with taupe cotton knit from Potters Textiles. Belt is stretchy beads with a wooden buckle, necklace is vintage from Paris, and shoes are Neo from Zomp.
Love the color! I love the feel of bamboo jersey too – never been able to find it anywhere.
You look fabulous in that dress, how nice to have something comfy and flattering for Christmas (and beyond)
Ooh. Nice choices. I’d have this as my Summer go-to dress too.
You’re on fire! and making so many nice dresses lately too 🙂 I think the length of the dress looks great on you; you have fabulous legs and the dress shows them off nicely.
Lovely dress, Sue. It falls beautifully.