Pattern Review Vogue 8623

 Sewing Fashionista Monica is looking good while sporting Vogue 8623.  Here is her review.

(sold out)

 Sku#S1032000

45″

100% Silk

$15.00

Pretreatment

 To pretreat the silk dupioni and the tweed, I used my professional steamer and a padded sewing table.  I covered the fabric with a sheet and steamed.  Afterwards, I used a clothes drying rack and allowed the fabric to dry overnight.

 Notions

 For the dress, I used an old Butterick Easy Sew Pattern (previously altered), muslin for underlining to give more body, bemberg lining, invisible zipper, thread, rayon hem tape.

For the jacket, interfacing, bemberg lining, snaps and buttons.  (I had the square chrome mirror buttons in my “collection” already.)

Time to put it together

The dress pattern is one that I have owned for a number of years.  It has been previously altered for my hips so I either use the muslin that I made as the pattern or the tissue pattern which is also altered.  On practically all of my patterns, I cut the pattern back, stopping short of the seam allowance to give extra length for hips.  I prefer to buy a larger size pattern and trim down so I almost always have to alter the shoulders.  

Because of the style of the jacket, the only alterations I did was to adjust the sleeve for the fullness of my arms.

Whenever I’m sewing I always cut out fabrics, linings, underlinings at the same time.  I put transfers on the underlining and lining to mark darts and other points that must match.  As I put the garment together, the transfers on the underlining are used to identify my darts and other markings for the fabric.

Personal Experience

The silk dupioni and the tweed were very easy to sew.  The fabrics are elegant and beautiful so they don’t require any patterns with extra flair.  Whenever I have fabrics like this, I always use simple patterns.  I didn’t have any problems with either pattern.  However, the jacket is fastened with snaps and the buttons are just trim.  There was a small pattern in the tweed so I made sure to match although it was difficult to distinguish the areas that didn’t quite match up.

Because of the texture of the fabric and the pleats in the jacket, I had to trim the seams to reduce the bulkiness in the back yoke.  It worked out ok but next time I use this fabric, I will make a jacket without any inserts or extra seams.  

Thanks Monica!  Fabulous as always!