Frocktober (better late than never)

I know, I know I’m a little late to the frocktober party I hope you don’t mind.

The dress is vogue 8280, which is now, unfortunately out of print, with a full circle skirt, contrast back yoke, exposed metal zipper and a bit of piping for good measure.

When I started I had no intentions on deviating from pattern on this one, I had cut the fitted skirt pieces for my muslin. Maybe it was the vintage feel of the floral fabric I used for my muslin, or even because it was a glorious sunny day and I was feeling particularly girly (&am a sucker for a twirly skirt) the day I muslined this up, but somewhere during that day, all good intentions of sticking to the pattern went out the window, and I caved, I pushed the fitted skirt aside, and instead, went with a super twirly full circle skirt and contrast waist band.

The wearable muslin

I’m shamed to admit, that the hacking didn’t end there. I didn’t particularly like how the contrast sleeve detail ended at the shoulder and side seams on my muslin. In my final dress, I continued the contrast detail across the back of the dress and added some piping to break up the white a bit.

Unfortunately, during this additional hacking (I think I might have a problem haha) I forgot to shorten the bodice to account for the waistband. But I remembered a white belt I had from a similar style dress, which works well.

The fabric, has to be one of my favourites, Wing song by Michael Miller. The first time I saw this print was on a RTW dress. I couldn’t justify the almost $200 price tag so left the dress and a bit of my heart in the shop that day. Months later, while window shopping online fabric stores, I happened across it on Fabric.com and before I knew it had happened, a length was on its way to me.

The contrast, is a plain white quilting cotton from my stash, and is lined in silk satin, which I scooped up from spotlight for a measly $4 a metre earlier this year.

The construction.

The pattern is known for its crazy all over the place instructions, so I was super diligent in reading and re reading before I did anything. Fortunately, it came together with little trouble, and only required minimum altering to the darts and shoulders to fit which are both pretty standard on most patterns.

Overall, I really love this dress, it worked out how I pictured it (which is always good) and is a pleasure to wear. I can’t say if I will make this one again, as I now have 3 in rotation, but I highly recommend it, just make sure you know where you are in the instructions, otherwise it may get a bit messy.