Vogue 1025 Metal and Moss

I had hoped to post about this dress before leaving for vacation the last week of July, but it didn't happen.

About the middle of the summer, when it becomes really hot and humid here in central VA, it is so much easier to throw on a lined sleeveless dress and sandals than mess with tops and bottom separates which I usually wear. Vogue 1025 has been in my "to sew" pattern pile for a while, since I saw Bloom's version. SewBlooms



This dress has "waistline" pleating that radiates out from a center point into the bodice and skirt. Waistline is in quotes because the horizontal seaming that joins the bodice and skirt is really located about 3 inches above the natural waist. This is not mentioned in the description on the back of the pattern envelope. It is clearly marked on the pattern pieces. Several reviewers ( at Patternreview.com) did not realize this and either made major alterations to lower the horizontal seam, or threw the dress away. A horizontal seam above the waist, where the body is smallest for many ladies, can be very flattering. Similar to an empire seam located just below the bust, it will emphasize the bust, while the skirt flows over potential problems areas like waist and hips. The fabric recommendations on the pattern all have the work "lightweight" in front of them. Using lightweight fabric for this dress is critical in forming the pleats and having them lay fairly flat to the body. The pleats all originate from a central point. There are a lot of layers of fabric to sew through at this point. Four pleats on the top plus the seam allowances from the center front seam and three on the bottom.

There is a lot of wearing ease in the pattern. Everywhere! I made it in a size smaller (14) than the size 16 I use for Vogue patterns. I always check the finished garment measurements printed on the pattern pieces and compare them to my own measurements and the amount of wearing ease I like in my clothing. The size 16 had way too much ease for me.

I made this dress in two different fabrics. Version 1 was to be a "little black dress". When I considered the fabric possibilities, I kept coming back to lightweight black foiled linen. "Foiled" was the description on the Jo Anne Fabrics sales slip, as in a thin layer of metallic foil applied to the surface of the fabric. A plain black linen is probably more wearable, but I wanted to see what the dress looked like in the foiled linen, and it was on sale. It is the same fabric that I used on the Badgley Mischa jacket and it was easy to work with. I love the metallic look, but I think it avoids the disco queen aura because of the dress style, and the linen fabric with its inherent texture and wrinkles. The belt is a vintage belt made of black elastic with a bronzy arrow head buckle design. With the fabric and belt I call the look "dusty warrior" as depicted in moves like Conan the Barbarian, and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. Apparel with lots of dull copper and bronze metals, leather, coarsely woven natural fabrics, and dust. This version is more a going out to dinner dress.

Version 2 was made of a light mossy green wool crepe from Hancock Fabrics. This fabric was very textured and surprising lightweight and ravelly. I used twill tape to stabilize the shoulder seams and waist seams. And fusible interfacing on the back seam where the zipper was inserted as well as the neckline edges and the sleeve edges.

Both dresses are lined with Bemberg rayon. On the pattern envelope, the dress is shown with a belt. I have a collection of belts, but most are from the 1980’s (sigh I don't know why I keep them), when they were big worn with pleated pants. I tried them on with my dresses. One positive was that belts that no longer fit at my waist did fit at the higher horizontal seam line of this dress. The negative was that the average belt does not work with this dress. After a lot of trying on, I came to the conclusion that the best belt for this dress was about 2" wide with a closure that serves as a focal point accessory. I have only one belt with a buckle/closure like this.
So I did some Internet shopping at Etsy and vintage jewelry sites for other belt buckles I could use for this dress. I found some really neat ones and most were priced under $10.00.

For the buckle at the top of the picture, I made a turned 1’ tube of distressed looking brown pleather (it took me an hour to turn the blasted thing), threaded 1” elastic through it and attached D rings at both ends. The D rings were needed because the buckle had two hooks underneath and it was the only way I could figure out how to attach it to a band. The elastic inside the band keeps it in place on the dress. Though the belt buckle looked fine with the dress, the 1" width band does not look as good as a wider 2" belt does. So someday, when I have a lot of time and patience, I will make a wider band to use with this buckle.

I am not sure what my next project will be. It's the classic late summer dilemma. Should I sew for summer or sew for fall??? My order of new Vogue fall patterns arrived last week, but the weather is still hot and humid and the stack of summer fabrics I had planned to make into clothes is still quite high.