Saturday, January 25, 2014

Liberty of London and V8805

Boy this Vogue 8805 is getting a workout! Here it is, slightly modified, in yet another (gasp, horror) DROP WAIST DRESS. Seriously now, it is starting to look like I have a problem. But in my defence (if I can call it one), this was not meant to be the next dress of my series, AND I actually don't know where this dress came from. I didn't plan to make it. There was no vision in my head. I just sat down with some fabric that I wanted to use up from my stash and suddenly a drop waist started to appear.




I used the leftover cotton ribbing from my Rigel Bomber in the sleeves. This makes the dress lovely and comfortable. The rest of the dress was made using a Liberty of London called Lodden Blue that I was lucky enough to pick up as a remnant from Tessuti Fabrics a while back. Unfortunately, as I look at the photos, I can now see that I cut the back a little off grain, bah! All the worse because I had this sinking feeling as I was cutting it. I knew I shouldn't have cut on the fold, but instead drawn up the full pattern piece to cut as one.

I was inspired to use the Liberty in this dress after seeing Emilie's creation, as posted on Sew Tessuti a while back. I probably wouldn't have thought of using Liberty otherwise, and can you believe it, this is actually the first Liberty print dress I have ever sewn for myself?! So here is a little happy twirl to celebrate this beautiful Summer fabric!


The modifications that I made to Vogue 8805 were:
  • shortening the sleeves (back to 2cm from the yoke seam)
  • shortening the middle panel by about 5cm
  • Adding a ruffle panel of 2 x widths of Liberty
  • I took about 2.5cm off the neckline all the way around and then added a band
  • Used my twin needle to finish the sleeve hems



11 comments:

  1. lisa g.January 25, 2014 at 5:14 PM

    i love your liberty fabric! and so smart to go with a contrast yoke. great dress!

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  2. barbarajaneJanuary 25, 2014 at 10:47 PM

    that's a lovely liberty print, a perfect summer dress. I love sewing with liberty and have made my husband a few shirts in various prints, though it's hard to find masculine ones. He loves wearing them.

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    Replies
    1. Debbie IlesJanuary 25, 2014 at 10:49 PM

      I've very nearly made my hubby one in a Liberty floral a few months ago but chickened out at the last minute. I really should give it a go next time. I imagine it would make sewing a business shirt that bit more fun ;-)

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  3. barbarajaneJanuary 25, 2014 at 11:08 PM

    I do so much sewing for myself sometimes I feel like I should do some for the better half, ive just put the prints ive used on instagram #barbarajanemade

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  4. mokoshaJanuary 26, 2014 at 6:24 AM

    i think this one is my favorite :)

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    Replies
    1. Debbie IlesJanuary 26, 2014 at 8:20 PM

      Thank you! I think you just can't do anything bad with Liberty can you ;-)

      Delete
  5. SewJillianJanuary 26, 2014 at 1:34 PM

    So pretty! And now I'm off to stage an intervention via Dropwaists Anonymous :)

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  6. Debbie IlesJanuary 26, 2014 at 4:19 PM

    I'm in big trouble. There are a few more along the way before my travel hiatus....and I've begun to inflict them on others too ;-)

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  7. AnonymousJanuary 27, 2014 at 3:45 PM

    I love this! I have seen many lovely versions of V8805 but this is now my favourite. (Everytime I try to buy this pattern at a Spotlight sale, it's been out of stock).

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  8. Debbie IlesJanuary 27, 2014 at 5:06 PM

    Thank you! It is such a great pattern, because it has custom fits for different cup sizes. So you can sew it up right out of the packet with no need for a FBA or SBA (in my case ;-))

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