plan b: vogue 8805

in the spirit of the real ernest flagg i am going to start a 'plan b' series on this blog.  plan b meaning a pattern that i make up twice or more.  i often seem to do this - while i'm making a pattern for the first time i am already thinking about another look for the pattern.  this is plan b: vogue 8805.

this pattern was popular on blogs a while back. i have been keen to make it up in ponte so i can wear it for work when i ride my bike and stuff my clothes in my panniers - we don't have ironing equipment at my office.

lucky for me i was able to check out some blog reviews and knew the pattern ran large before cutting.  according to the pattern i am a 12 for the bust and 16 for waist and hips, but i cut a straight 10.  its a straightforward quick make and am happy that it fits quite nicely.

the only change i made was to omit the back neck opening and cut 1cm from the neckline so i can pull on the dress over my head. for my taste the back of this dress is a bit boxy, i will probably go back and put some darts in.

for the second version i used a printed rayon and black cotton sateen after seeing this version on the tessuti blog. i also cut a 10.

i made a few more alterations to this one:

• extended the length of the middle piece and reduced the length on the lower piece
• cut 1.5cm off the neckline so i could again omit the back opening and still be able to pull the dress on
• added back darts
• tapered the sides at the waist fractionally 

i gathered the rayon to ease fit it to the top piece.  I did get a couple of small puckers but they aren't really noticeable.  i bound both necks with bias binding. i also finished the arm holes on the first version with bias binding as i sewed up the side seams before pressing up the hems, so used the binding to avoid fiddly turning and pressing.

for the second version i pressed up the arm hems prior to sewing the side seams and finished with a regular sewn hem. i went for red bias binding on the neck, as if you follow this blog you may have noticed there has been a lot of black and white around here.  some regular coloured programming will return soon!

emma