the "mad men" dress that nearly drove me mad; or, a sort-of vogue 8409

remember this?
well, i almost didn’t either.  i had accidentally-on-purpose shoved it in a drawer affectionately known as are 51 and was seriously considering leaving it there with the ark of the covenant after the torture of boning, interfacing, piping and inserting that !@@!$(^% waistband.

pattern inspiration. it proved too much of a wiggle dress for me, and i couldn’t get it fitted properly so i used it as my inspiration to redraw vogue 8409.

but since all it needed was a waistband facing, hem, zipper, and sleeve hems, not to mention how expensive i’m pretty sure this red wool sateen fabric was – it was so long ago i can’t remember – i decided i couldn’t let the year end without finishing it.  (ALL!!  that waistband facing had to be inserted BY HAND!!)

still, now that it is finished and i can enjoy it, i sort of love it.  the red sings, people.  it’s lively and vibrant.  and the dress, while obviously very vintage, is also pretty darn cute.  i love the pleated skirt, which i stole from advance 8516.

so, let me run you through the construction details on this new year’s baby.  it started off fairly well in march of 2012.  i was innocently preparing to use this as my submission for the “mad men” sew weekly challenge.  i had cut it out and substituted the skirt and redrew my bodice from vogue 8409 and i was all set.  i used the cut-up bodice of my biggest disappointment ever to make bias tape and a neck facing, and decided to use some of that tape to make piping on the waistband.  i also decided, because it was the right way to construct it, to bone the waistband, so i used sew-in interfacing and some muslin to create a boning layer.  that is where i stopped in march of 2012, after the third time i tried to re-baste all of the layers of that waistband in place.

to finish up this bad boy, i slip-stitched the inside waistband in place, tacked down the neck facing with a catchstitich, and beaded the side zipper because that is one of my favorite details.  i also used the last of the bias tape to hem the sleeves for an extra pop of color.

as you can see, the fit is solid but not perfect, but i can live with that because it neither gapes at the neckline nor the bustline and sits pretty nicely at my natural waist.  maybe i could have pulled in a slice in the back to accommodate how narrow my back is, but c’est la vie.

and you know how i love me some dark sea-foam green hem lace!  a nice touch or too holly hobby?  do i even care?

nah, not so much. 

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