Vogue V9252
PROJECT: A drop hem party dress with princess seams and pockets. Hurray for pockets! The princess seams allow for a nice fit and easier adjustments at the waist if necessary and there’s lots of volume in the skirt which makes it feel extra party-time-tastic. And just in time for the NYE celebrations!
PATTERN: Vogue Pattern V9252
REASONS FOR MAKING: The very lovely Rachel and Kate of The Fold Line were good enough to pick my Kelly Anorak as a star make so I got to choose 2 patterns as a prize and this was one of them. And sure with Christmas coming up, why not make a party dress? Now I got this pattern a good few weeks ago but that didn’t stop me from only finishing it the night before my Christmas party! Nothing like a last minute panic to kick your ass into gear eh?
FABRICS: Black and copper jacquard fabric for the main with a black satin lining for the bodice and pocket bags
TRIMS: Black invisible zip (22 inch) and 1 button
HOW TO: There wasn’t a whole lot to making to this dress since it’s one of Vogue’s ‘Very Easy’ patterns so it was a quick make.
The fabric I was using had a tricky pattern that I wanted to match where possible. I didn’t take this into account when I was buying it though so I was a bit tight on meterage. This meant that if I wanted to make sure that the motifs were correctly aligned down the centre front line, the centre back was the only seam line I was able to pattern match properly.
I did make one little adjustment to the pattern. Instead of just lining the bodice using main pattern, I created a facing and lining. Just a personal preference.
Ta-Dah! Now pass me a Dingle Gin pronto!
WHAT WENT WRONG: I made up a toile for the dress which came up pretty large so instead of re-doing the toile, I just took off a bit here and there and went straight into the real thing…turns out I took off too much here and there! But thankfully there was enough in the seam allowances for me to take it out a bit at the waist.
LESSONS LEARNED: So the rumours are true. Vogue patterns are pretty big! Next time I’ll try the size down instead of nipping and tucking. A finished garment measurement chart would be handy.
VERDICT: This dress has also been a bit of a practice run for something a little more special coming up in 2018 but my lips are sealed for now. I’ll be happier now that I’ve made it once and see that it is definitely a nice easy make. If using an easy sew fabric and without the hassle of pattern matching, you’d have this dress whipped up in just a few hours. But there are a lot of unstable seams in the skirt so that might be something to watch out for if using a less stable fabric like a crepe or a silk satin.