Esther’s Vogue 1734
With the stunning Lise Tailor viscose in June’s Luxury Box Esther made a Vogue 1734 wrap dress.
Nothing says I’m a glutton for punishment like sewing a new to me pattern with a number of pattern pieces that requires adjusting and narrow hems in the same time frame as taking my sewing machine for a service, leaving barely any time for sewing. I can say from a lot of experience that nothing gets the productivity meter going like a looming deadline.
I always love receiving the SewHayleyJane boxes, it’s like a monthly advent calendar. Not knowing what fabric I’d get but having to turn that fabric into a garment in a particular time frame really gets my creative juices flowing. I always like taking full advantage of the amount of yardage at my disposal with the Luxury Box, so even though I only had one Saturday to make this dress, I still wanted to make something that would make good use of the fabric. While my sewing machine was away, I pre-washed my fabric and gave it a good press. I usually iron my fabrics on the fold to make things faster as I am not a fan of ironing but I pressed all 3.5m of this fabric on a single layer because it was so satisfying to iron. The fabric was beautiful to cut and sewing it was fab. I really enjoyed the process of creating this dress.
I had been hoping that this month’s box would be a viscose or a similar weighted fabric. I can truly say that viscose is my favourite fabric. In truth, it’s not necessarily my favourite to cut or to sew, as I prefer more stable fabrics like cotton, denim or wool. But my favourite part of sewing is the end product and a good viscose fabric always creates a wonderful garment for me especially for the warmer months.
I have always had a thing for wrap dresses, I think they are absolutely flattering and they can take you through different dress sizes. I knew instantly that I wanted to make a wrap dress and my two contenders were the Sew Over It Eve dress and Vogue 1734. Both patterns have similar styles except the Vogue pattern has a more fitted bodice than the Eve dress. My preference is a fitted bodice and a floaty skirt. I decided the Vogue pattern would do the trick. The Vogue 1734 is a reprint of the popular Vogue 9251. I never know why they reprint patterns and give them new names, but oh well…
I wanted a wrap dress with a nice full skirt, I also wanted some cute sleeves. The Vogue pattern definitely delivered. The skirt is nice and full, making it the perfect garment on a windy afternoon. As amazing as this pattern is, it is designed to first tie on the inside and then on the outside but it doesn’t wrap around you. I find this to be an annoying way of closing up a wrap dress. I feel that it defeats the purpose of being able to tie the dress as fitted as you want. In my very humble opinion, wrap dresses should wrap around you. I made a few quick changes to create my desired style. I added 15 inches to the waist ties so it could go round my body, I left open one side of the bodice to accommodate the ties and I topstitched it. I also added some interfacing to stabilise the opening and topstitched around it. Finally, I attached the ties to the edges of both front pieces.
The pattern has you finish the neckline with bias binding which is my preferred way to finish necklines. I overlocked the sleeve and skirt hems and pressed them under twice. I made some fit adjustments to the pattern to fit my body just a little better. I did a full bust adjustment, added some height to the front neckline and did a narrow shoulder adjustment. In retrospect, the narrow shoulder adjustment was not necessary.
This was a quick sew, the dress came together very easily and there were no difficult bits of making the dress. I think the hardest part of the process was getting decent pictures with the wind blowing the skirt and the sleeves.
I love this dress. I feel like I got the pairing correct with the dress and pattern. I think this would be a great dress for all the Spring and Summer parties and weddings.