Sunday, August 18, 2013

My Last Summer Garment...Vogue 1313

The dresses I'm making for my sisters have been a work in progress. I now have five completed. I forgot to take pictures of # 5 before it went home with Pauline but hope to get a pic of it somehow.Of course, I've managed to sew a thing or two for myself this summer but since I have too many clothes, sewing for others has been a good thing.

I've been working on Vogue 1313 for a while now.


At first glance this Anne Klein dress is a very simple design but take a look at the line drawing and you'll soon change your mind. Just look at all those pieces!

Here's my dress.


My fabrics are both ponte in Poly/Rayon/lycra blend. I made a size 12 and didn't need to add any extra to the side seams.I'm wearing the dress and it's actually a little too big. I have lost 8 pounds in the last few months so that may be why  so judge accordingly if you are planning on making this dress. I sometimes have to add to the side seams on a size 12.

I wanted to incorporate a striped chevron effect to the front panels. In order to do this, I had to cut the bottom piece down the middle and add seam allowances.What I should have done was to join the upper part to the bottom and cut them out together to avoid that seam where I had no end of trouble
matching the stripes and it shows.


Here are the changes I made to this pattern.

I changed the French dart to a regular bust dart to lessen the distortion of the stripes.  To see how to do this, look here on Diana's Sewing Lessons.

Originally, I added the pockets but they were not attractive . They showed up as a bump and didn't stay closed so I took them out. I also left out the quilting you are suppose to do to the outer shoulder pieces. I just couldn't see the point of that.

I added 2 1/2 " to the length of the dress. I'm 5'4" tall so you can see that this is a short dress.

 I also raised the armholes 3/4" otherwise they would have been too low.

I foolishly decided to use the chevron pattern on the upper back yoke . Enough said I think!


All in all, my Anne Klein dress is a success if I don't point out the flawed seam across my lower front.
It is quite loose and very comfortable and I think quite slimming. It has a retro look and  I recommend the pattern.

My husband decided we needed to take pics outside this morning ,so here are a couple but I think the indoor one shows it best.


I resisted the urge to peg the bottom because that just wasn't the style of this design, but!!!


                                                    See what I mean about the back yoke?



My sweet little Riley was here for over a week and I enjoyed every day with her. I call her my Little Pixie because she is so slight. I've had a bit of a heartache since I took her and her daddy to the airport this past Tuesday!



I do hope you've found time to sew this week!

More later from


11 comments:

RhondaBuss said...

Cute dress and talk about slimming!! You're small to begin with and you look even smaller!!

Faye Lewis said...

That is a cute dress - love it!

Andrea said...

Yay, Diana, you're showing up in my feed!
Very cute dress, you look great, and what a cutie your granddaughter is.

Vicki said...

Cute dress. The stipes look great.

Sharon said...

Very stylish dress love the stripes.

EmSewCrazy said...

Very nice dress! I say with all those pieces you did a good job matching all the stripes.

Anonymous said...

Wow that chevron work would have been jolly hard but the effect is pretty. I like it.

Cute little pixie - little ones make me smile too :)

shams said...

Oooh, I love the chevroning of the stripes (esp on the back)!!!

velosews said...

I like how this worked out for you. It's great when you are able to try new style lines.

Mary said...

It's beautiful-you did a wonderful job matching the stripes. I had a devil of a time with this pattern, but was able tocomplete it and have since enjoyed the dress. You look great!!

Sandra said...

Thanks so much for sharing your process with this dress. The result is that you look fabulous in it! Your sweet little Riley -- what can I say? She's just Q-T!